- Attachment: Not so near miss
- Next Tuesday, Election Day, November 8,2011, an asteroid 400 meters in diameter will fly by Earth between us and the Moon traveling at nearly 42,000 miles per hour.
- The asteroid will miss the Earth by a mere 202,000 miles and just miss the Moon by 149,000 miles.
- Careful tracking of this asteroid tells us that we should not be in danger from this on for at least another 100 years. Yhewww! It will be back in 2041 but should miss us again next time as well.
- The next “known” big asteroid is not expected to have a close encounter until 2028. This one is expected to pass within 154,000 miles of Earth. These asteroids are tracked with some uncertainties. When they pass by other planets or other asteroids their paths can become altered. Stay tuned!
- This one we see on November 8 will be very dark and barely visible with a 6 inch backyard telescope. However, radar using the “chirp” mode should get good pictures down to 4 meter resolution. This should allow good definition of the asteroid’s shape. Other observations using infrared telescopes should learn about the surface roughness and the mineral composition.
- If this asteroid was really going to hit us we would not need to bother turning our clocks back for Daylight Savings Time. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Friday, November 4, 2011
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