Huge goddamn space rock narrowly misses Earth - Well, it's bigger then most humans.

NASA reveals an asteroid passed so close to Earth yesterday it was WITHIN the 'ring of satellites' in orbit

A 10-foot asteroid whizzed past Earth yesterday at a distance 20 times closer than the moon – and astronomers spotted it just six hours before its closest approach.

Known as 2017 EA, the space rock soared just 9,000 miles (14,500 km) above the eastern Pacific Ocean, reaching its nearest point at 6:04 a.m. PST on Thursday morning.

This year has already seen several 'close shaves' with asteroids, but astronomers say this object likely won’t come around again for at least a hundred years.

Scientists at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona detected asteroid 2017 EA just six hours before its closest approach, according to the space agency’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

The 10-foot-wide object (3 meters) passed safely by Earth on Thursday - but, it came within the ring of geosynchronous satellites.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ls-asteroid-passed-close-Earth-yesterday.html

 

[Cosmos]

Brianna warned us about this.

But anyway, if I'm reading this correctly, the only real danger was that the asteroid might have broken some satellites, right? I'm assuming that a 10-foot asteroid would have simply burned up in Earth's atmosphere.

 

[LegoTugboat]

Brianna warned us about this.

But anyway, if I'm reading this correctly, the only real danger was that the asteroid might have broken some satellites, right? I'm assuming that a 10-foot asteroid would have simply burned up in Earth's atmosphere.

According to NASA, a rock smaller then 25 metres, or 62 feet, wouldn't survive the atmosphere. An asteroid would have to originally be 30 metres at least to be worthy of concern.

Anything under a kilometre, or half a mile, would cause local damage to the area.

So, tl;dr, could knock out a sat or two, but as for physical risk to the Earth, maybe some unknown new fire resistant disease from space dust.