Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/13/nasa-reports-a-potentially-h.html
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8 Likes
Thank god we have competent leaders who will effectively enlist our valuable government agencies to ward off this threat.
Been nice knowin’ all y’all.
43 Likes
Is it at least shaped like a heart for some dramatic irony?
44 Likes
Just wait until Nostradumbass hears about this.
“Wait. NASA still has an operating budget. Quick cancel NASA I need to go golfing again”.
26 Likes
I’ll tell you guys, I’ve got a better chance of being crushed by a meteor than getting a date for Valentine’s Day.
34 Likes
The 14th is a good day to be abducted by aliens.
12 Likes
This is rather short notice. Two days isn’t much time to prepare.
22 Likes
Don’t get your hopes up. According to the NEO website, at it’s closest the object will be be 15x farther from us than the moon is.
27 Likes
Is that why it’s so windy out?
16 Likes
No, it’s windy because those damn Europeans have re-positioned all their cancer-causing wind turbines in an attempt to blow it off course.
41 Likes
taller than the largest human-made building
… who else has been making buildings, and what do you know about them?
58 Likes
So could someone explain what makes this potentially hazardous? Is 3.6 million miles within the margin of error?
16 Likes
A 3.6 million miles away drive by.
“Better roll the windows up kids, we’re passing Earth.”
24 Likes
“…trigger a global nuclear winter…”
NOT nuclear. Simple (very extreme, but still, simple) thermal release due to kinetic energy transfer down the gravity well of our planetary atmosphere. Nothing nuclear about it…no naughty radiation.
24 Likes
Termite mounds come closest, and if a meteor that size was heading for Earth I wouldn’t be too worried.
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“Potentially hazardous astreroids” is a formal classification given to those whose orbits are roughly coplanar with and cross the orbit of the Earth. Although a pass of 0.04 AU does not imply a collision this time, if its orbit is perturbed by other bodies in the Solar System it can end up on an intercept pass.
This, btw, is what happened with Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9; a close pass to Jupiter altered its orbit, resulting in an impact with the planet 18 months later.
28 Likes
Blame the Indonesian butterflies
8 Likes
OK, president fucknuts, time to shine.
20 Likes
"Oh thank God"
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