Unexpected Near Miss?

[Gazz]

An asteroid passed closer to Earth than any previously recorded, but the planet was not at risk, NASA scientists announced.

The space rock is about 100 feet (30 meters) wide. It passed just 26,500 miles (43,000 kilometers) over the southern Atlantic Ocean at 5:08 p.m. ET Thursday. That's about 3.4 times Earth's diameter. It's also just beyond geostationary weather satellites, which orbit at an altitude of 22,300 miles (35,700 kilometers).

Scientist said experienced backyard stargazers should have been able to see it with binoculars or small telescopes from much of Asia, Europe and the Southern Hemisphere, assuming that the skies were clear.

The object, named 2004 FH, was detected Monday.....

Full Report Link

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I don't know what you think but this

one was real close, only 200 miles from

our geostationary weather satellites!

wow

Gazz

[Papillon]

It makes you wonder at what stage the worlds population would be told of a near miss or even a hit. Would they base it on the size of the rock or by how close it will be coming. Then again, if it was big enough, would they tell us at all?

[<bleeding_heart>]

I wonder if they would bother if they had no one of stopping an impact what would be the point of mass panic?

Glad I was lying down or things could have been much worse!

[WorkMonkey]

It makes you wonder at what stage the worlds population would be told of a near miss or even a hit. Would they base it on the size of the rock or by how close it will be coming. Then again, if it was big enough, would they tell us at all?

In February this year I believe Nasa came withen two minutes of making a call to President Bush saying a meteor had a 1/4 chance of hitting the Earth withen 36 hours. However they received the call just in time that there was no chance of an impact.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3517319.stm

Edited March 20, 2004 by WorkMonkey