BRING IT
(This sentence included because of automated editorial requirements.)
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Is it just me or are they getting closer?
BTW, it’s all very well spotting those asteroids, but there’s not much anybody can do about avoiding them or fending them off.
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There are many aspects to asteroids often missed by the panicked masses. Here are three points to consider… 1) Any asteroid we’ve been watching since 2002 is no mystery and we know to within a few dozen miles where it is traveling through space. If its motion is expected to miss the Earth by millions of miles, it 's just plain dumb to call this a ‘close shave.’ 2) Looking as far into the future as we can reliably see (hundreds of years), nothing resembling a ‘planet-killer’ will pass close to the Earth. In fact, 99% asteroids that come anywhere near the Earth wouldn’t reach the ground even if they did run into our planet. 3) If we have any sort of noteworthy encounter, it’s much more likely to be a rock like the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor – not the end of the world. Of course, in the 21st Century, panic sells and reality doesn’t, and I’m probably wasting my key strokes writing this.
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This is very much is grunt and shrug territory. Get back to me when it’s within 0.5 lunar distance. This site is fairly instructive, scroll down to the Near Earth Asteroids table: https://www.spaceweather.com/
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I doubt it, they’re just being detected earlier now, although still usually after the point of closest approach.
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Welcome aboard, comrade! It is always nice to hear a voice of reason.
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