This just in compliments of NASA: An asteroid tagged "2023 BU" and the size of a "delivery truck" (28 feet across) is scheduled to "graze" our planet in a matter of hours. According to the space jockeys, we're looking at a passage of just 3,500 km (2,200 miles) above Earth's surface (defined technically as a "graze") given it's barely 1/3 Earth's diameter at 5:27 Mountain standard time. That puts it at about 4 1/2 hours from the time I am typing this in Colorado Springs, NASA estimated. According to NASA this is expected to be one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object on record.
The good news? It's not expected to actually strike our planet, although even if it did we are not facing a "planet killer" such as wiped out the dinosaurs. That asteroid was nearly 1 km across, splattered into the then Gulf of Mexico and created an impact wave almost 1,200 ft. high. The worst that can happen is the object "would turn into a fireball and largely disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere.”
The bigger pieces, scientists say, would then likely rain down as meteorites. But having had the experience in Barbados some 37 years ago (the Mt. Tenantry object) some of those meterorites could be the size of small (~ 0.2 m) boulders. So heads up!
Again, “There is no risk of the asteroid impacting Earth,” NASA said, and I suspect we can take the space jockeys at their word. In any case, if it does break up in our atmosphere it ought to provide quite a fireworks show!
No comments:
Post a Comment