UN Giant Asteroid to Pass By Earth Next Month

http://www.complex.com/life/2017/08/a-large-asteroid-will-pass-by-earth-in-september

With each passing day, it feels as though the world is inching closer and closer to its impending doom. Next month, the Earth will have a close brush with death when an asteroid comes within a couple million miles of colliding with the planet we regrettably call home.

"Asteroid Florence, a large near-Earth asteroid, will pass safely by Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles," NASA said in a news release. "Florence is among the largest near-Earth asteroids that are several miles is size." Given the asteroid's close proximity to Earth, scientists will use this opportunity to study Florence through ground-based radar observations.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and NEOWISE mission have measured the size of the asteroid at about 2.7 miles. "While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). "Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began."

Since Florence will luckily—we guess—spare our lives on Sept. 1, we can just go back to living our day-to-day lives of destroying the planet on our own. Have a happy Saturday, everyone!

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

"Asteroid Florence, a large near-Earth asteroid, will pass safely by Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles," NASA said in a news release. "Florence is among the largest near-Earth asteroids that are several miles is size." Given the asteroid's close proximity to Earth, scientists will use this opportunity to study Florence through ground-based radar observations.

It's a damn shame space agencies can't take advantage of this opportunity and send something up to that big rock... but I guess it's zipping by at a couple miles a second, so it's not like you can just throw a probe at it and hope for the best.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Didn't they say the next one was supposed to come ten years after the other one that just passed by us a while back?
If I'm right about that memory, NASA better get it's shit together or there's gonna be armageddon but without spaceships going up to stop it.

 

[Captain Lhurgoyf]

At this point, it'll be a mercy kill.

 

[The Great Chandler]

The last miles long asteroid that passed us also came along with this.

Luckily it's airbursts were too small compared to what happened at Tunguska.

 

[LiveFromNS]

Didn't they say the next one was supposed to come ten years after the other one that just passed by us a while back?
If I'm right about that memory, NASA better get it's shit together or there's gonna be armageddon but without spaceships going up to stop it.

You might be thinking of Apophis:

Asteroid will pass so close to Earth in 2029 it will trigger asteroid avalanche

The more pessimistic among our readership might already be digging bunkers in their backyards in anticipation of April 13th, 2029. On that day (a Friday nonetheless), an asteroid called 99942 Apophis will come perilously close to Earth. The most recent data suggests that it will miss us by a mere 35,000 kilometers, a hairs breadth in astronomical terms. Analysis of Apophis’ orbit suggests it might swing so close that it causes avalanches — on itself.
Apophis is about the size of a football field, giving it enough mass to cause widespread devastation should it ever collide with Earth. At 35,000 kilometers (about 22,000 miles), Apophis will be well within the orbit of the moon way out at roughly 363,000 kilometers (225,000 miles). That’s close, but scientists always thought of asteroids as large monolithic pieces of rock. How can a little gravity cause it to go to pieces? This new model from University of Maryland researchers takes into account observations made by a Japanese space probe called Hayabusa back in 2005.

Hayabusa was on a mission to take close-up images of an asteroid called Itokawa (seen above), which is about the same size and composition as Apophis. What scientists saw was not a single piece of rock, but a giant clump of smaller rocks and dust held together by its own weak gravity. Of course, “small” is a relative term–there could still be single chunks of rock in the mix the size of a building. Researchers suspect that Apophis is similar in nature, made up of smaller pieces of rock that could shift around when exposed to the gravity of a nearby planet.



With a looser structure, Apophis is likely to be affected by tidal forces as it passes Earth in 2029. The model indicates that small avalanches may be set off across Apophis’ surface, which could actually shake up the surface enough to expose new material that hasn’t yet been baked in the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Since astronomers regularly use surface UV exposure to estimate the age of asteroids, 99942 Apophis may actually be much older than it appears.

The avalanches predicted on Apophis won’t be the sort of thing that radically alters its shape. It will take powerful instruments to observe any possible changes. However, scientists will definitely be watching. It’s a mercifully rare occasion when asteroids of this size come so close to Earth, so it will be important to watch how it behaves. By observing the infrared spectra of Apophis before and after its pass, scientists can figure out if more of the aged rocks have been covered up by previously hidden ones, indicating avalanches. If the surface does get shaken up, that tells us a lot about the nature of these space rocks.

The 2029 pass might be the last chance astronomers have to get an up close look at Apophis for a long time. On it’s next orbit in 2036, 99942 Apophis is expected to get no closer than 36 million miles (57 million kilometers) away. That’s good news, all things considered. It couldn’t get much closer without becoming a Bruce Willis sort of problem.
https://www.geek.com/news/asteroid-...29-it-will-trigger-asteroid-avalanche-1608037

 

[SpessCaptain]

Well if it crashes it'll be cool as fuck.