Car-size asteroid discovered 2 days ago flies 30 times closer to Earth than the moon (www.livescience.com)
from throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to astronomy@mander.xyz on 12 Apr 2024 03:33
https://lemmy.nz/post/9125939

#astronomy

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someguy3@lemmy.ca on 12 Apr 2024 04:15 next collapse

Is that big enough to not burn up in the atmosphere?

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 12 Apr 2024 04:30 next collapse

This means it’s an asteroid with a weight-class that would have burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, if its orbit happened to intersect ours more directly.

dellish@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 2024 06:17 collapse

So… Asteroid that would have burned up in the atmosphere will miss us instead. I guess that’s good news?

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 12 Apr 2024 12:24 collapse

Livescience is 90% over-hyped nothing.

Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz on 12 Apr 2024 04:33 collapse

A quick search suggests that something as small as 5 meters can survive hitting the ground, however there are a number of calculations to consider including the speed it is traveling, the entry angle, and the material it is made of.

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 12 Apr 2024 04:33 next collapse

“30 times closer than the Moon” 🙄

Around 12 thousand miles (19.3 thousand kilometers).

bigbadmoose@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 2024 04:40 next collapse

Missed it by this 🤏 much

JoMomma@lemm.ee on 12 Apr 2024 05:40 next collapse

12k miles is very close, the headline is using ridiculous comparisons, but 12k is closer than many medium and high orbit satellites.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Earth_orbit

halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 2024 05:57 next collapse

Which on the scale of the solar system is essentially the width of a damned hair. We have satellites in higher orbits than that.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 2024 07:05 collapse

How much is that in elephants?

jam12705@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 2024 13:26 next collapse

I’m not up to date on the latest elephant measuring units but we’re talking at lease 7.8million horse lengths away of that helps.

If you’re looking for greater accuracy we can always convert that to badgers with a simple formula.

acockworkorange@mander.xyz on 13 Apr 2024 18:46 collapse

Rude to call your mom that.

tiredofsametab@kbin.run on 12 Apr 2024 04:44 collapse

I know that's not how the phrase is meant to be read, but I can't unsee it as it flying separately by the earth and the moon and deciding to buzz one of the two a bit closer.

Serinus@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 2024 14:17 collapse

Than vs then.

tiredofsametab@kbin.run on 14 Apr 2024 05:43 collapse

Hrm, so there's a third interpretation.