Small Asteroid Passes Between Earth and Moon Today 3/16/2011

I know there are other things going on around the world, but I also thought this was rather interesting and didn't want anyone to miss it....

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...

2011 EB74 will pass .9 LD (345,960 km) and is 18m in size. Nothing earth-shattering but still worth noting... there have been quite a few close passes of asteroids as of late. Spaceweather has fantastic archives that you can go back through and you can see for yourself that it's been "active" lately.

Spaceweather.com


~Namaste

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne


6 flags & stars in less than 12 minutes and 0 replies. I'm just bumping this thread.

Thanks OP!!

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


Thanks Iamonlyhuman.

Just trying to keep a watchful eye on things besides what's happening in Japan... for that I take pride and a great degree of trust that the other members on ATS will keep me better informed than the mass-media.

~Namaste

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne
At around 60ft it's nasty enough at a high speed. Only seen first today I take it, since it was not on spaceweather earlier. We all really need to start taking note of these same day flyovers, There seems to be a lot of unseen newbies between 2010 and 2011, whether there is an increase or not I don't know. "Easily" checked I suppose. Thanks for the heads up.

This reminds me of a Cartoon from the 80's Thundar the Barbarian... but it was a Comet not an astroid that passed between the Earth and the Moon. If I remember correctly it kinda mutated everybody...

reply to post by smurfy


I agree... small, but at that speed, could still knock down a building or two pretty easily, and worse yet, for some less-advanced countries, look like they are being attacked! I've always feared that an asteroid collision could spark a war because of a knee-jerk reaction, but hopefully the human race is beyond that.

~Namaste

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

I thought this was an interesting statement. A read between the lines disclaimer.

From your OP:

Nothing earth-shattering but

No pun intended, right?

A well deserved S&F sir. I appreciate the heads up.

Thanks for the info S&F

Thanks for your posting! We always need people watching the skies and data coming in! Its quite disturbing that there could be lurking, the killer asteroid that nobody has yet to spot.....

Thanks for the heads up OP! It may not be 'earth shattering' news but for those who care about more than our little blue ball in the Universe, it's good to note. And I always keeping an eye on Spaceweather.com -- odd, as I never cared much for the sun's activity until recently, but I am sure a lot of folks can say the same thing eh? *grin*

Wow, a post that isn't utter bull. I am shocked and impressed. Of course the post doesn't have anything to do with dolphins causing the japanese earthquake/tsunami. And it has nothing to do with some friends friend on USS ___________ given internet access by the navy from naval quarantine where he is tweeting about dieing from radioactive poisoning so it doesn't have 120 flags

Good work OP S&F.

Thanks for this OP. S&F
I agree, it's nice to see a story with some decent sources! Whales causing earthquakes!?! hmm.....

With it's size and proximity (0.0023AU) do you think we will be able to see this passing by?

Will deffo be out with my specs on if so.

Since this is a small asteroid, wouldn't the gravity between the Earth and the Moon have some effect on it's trajectory? Just wondering where it's going to hit...

www.foxnews.com...

ATS beats out FoxNews for the scoop on that one!

Seems the news is looking to us for what's REALLY going on in the world...

~Namaste

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne
You can bet on that. Now, someone said it is disturbing that a late entry can be so close before being detected, that is a fact. there have been similar threads and fairly recently where "voices from above" have latched on to us with reassurance. That reassurance is good up to a point, but it is not gospel, and it is not from above, this NASA link gives one optimistic aspect in the WISE project,

science.nasa.gov...

then there is the news about this threads subject

news.yahoo.com...

You will note that "it poses no threat to earth" "The small asteroid 2011 EB74 was about *47 feet? (14 meters) across and posed no threat of hitting Earth, since it was too small to survive the trip through the planet's atmosphere."
Then there is another NASA based tale. This time, and they are talking about a 60 pound rock,
“This is the first time our cameras picked up something we thought produced meteorites on the ground,” Cooke said. “If we find the one in Scottsboro, we know exactly where it came from.” Look at the 'Hunt for meteorites' section,

www.wired.com...

Ahem!

*Spaceweather.com lists the size as 18m that is nearer to 59ft!