Community | November 12, 2009 | 3 comments

Earth has close encounter with passing asteroid

Rickharmon25
ASTEROID NEAR MISS: On Nov. 6th at 2132 UT, asteroid 2009 VA barely missed Earth when it flew just 14,000 km above the planet's surface. That's well inside the "Clarke Belt" of geosynchronous satellites. If it had hit, the ~6-meter wide space rock would have disintegrated in the atmosphere as a spectacular fireball, causing no significant damage to the ground. 2009 VA was discovered just 15 hours before closest approach by astronomers working at the Catalina Sky Survey.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Current Tonight,   US News,   Unfeatured
  2. tags:
    cosmic,  Near miss,  ateroid
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3 comments // Earth has close encounter with passing asteroid // Video

  • Rickharmon25
    • 0
      Rickharmon25  

    • jwreagan has made a comment on Earth has close encounter with passing asteroid:

      I actually witnessed 2009 VA pass over last night, I gotta tell you the truth it scared the living snot out of me! I live in Lincoln county MO and I was walking my dog after work, on the way home the sky lit up enough to cast shadows on the ground. I thought it was headlights behind me, I turned around, saw nothing. I looked back to the east and saw a large streak of light the same hue as the light from an arc welder. I feel very fortunate to have witnessed such an amazing display!

    • 2 years ago
  • Jubiejanks
  • ThoughtNu
    • 0
      ThoughtNu  

    • Even if they only had 15 hours notice, wouldn't you want to know that the world may be effected by this object or the others?
      You will never know if you watch the news unless someone spills the beans like this unfortunately after the fact or some city goes boom.

    • 2 years ago
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