Is the world coming to and end? :
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.c ... attle.html
Haka
Danger, Danger !
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bigfatdave
- Master contributor
- Posts: 705
- Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:22 am
- Location: near Camp Perry
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badas ... on-monday/
Looks like it missed, guys. Please return to your normally scheduled non-panic.
closest approach was ~7430 miles from surface at 13:01 Eastern US time.
To put that distance in perspective:
- Mt Everest is ~ 5.5 miles above sea level, insignificant compared to closest approach distance
- The meaningfully dense atmosphere is ~10 miles high
- Geostationary orbit is at ~22,236 mi ... so 2011 MD was within the satellite fleet, I wonder what the closest approach was up there?
Some excerpts from the above article:
"We’re in no danger from the asteroid, named 2011 MD, since there’s essentially zero chance it will hit us. Even if it did, it’s too small to impact the surface, and would instead break apart and burn up in the atmosphere. That would be exciting, and make quite a show, but that’s about it."
and
"And I do want to point out one more thing. Since the orbit is very Earth-like, the relative velocity of this rock to us is pretty small. Imagine two cars on a race track, one moving at 200 kph and the other at 210 kph. To someone standing by the track they both scream past at high speed, but to the slower car, the faster one overtakes it at 10 kph — not very fast at all. "
and
Looks like it missed, guys. Please return to your normally scheduled non-panic.
closest approach was ~7430 miles from surface at 13:01 Eastern US time.
To put that distance in perspective:
- Mt Everest is ~ 5.5 miles above sea level, insignificant compared to closest approach distance
- The meaningfully dense atmosphere is ~10 miles high
- Geostationary orbit is at ~22,236 mi ... so 2011 MD was within the satellite fleet, I wonder what the closest approach was up there?
Some excerpts from the above article:
"We’re in no danger from the asteroid, named 2011 MD, since there’s essentially zero chance it will hit us. Even if it did, it’s too small to impact the surface, and would instead break apart and burn up in the atmosphere. That would be exciting, and make quite a show, but that’s about it."
and
"And I do want to point out one more thing. Since the orbit is very Earth-like, the relative velocity of this rock to us is pretty small. Imagine two cars on a race track, one moving at 200 kph and the other at 210 kph. To someone standing by the track they both scream past at high speed, but to the slower car, the faster one overtakes it at 10 kph — not very fast at all. "
and
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greener
Relative velocity is the earth and the meteorite/asteroid. However, when the meteorite is captured by the earth's gravity and doesn't have the velocity for obit, it falls to the earth. Once it starts to fall, the velocity will be somewhere between 7 km/s-52 km/s. Remember, when they fall, they burn.
What, me worry? I'm protectedlease return to your normally scheduled non-panic.
greener wrote:Relative velocity is the earth and the meteorite/asteroid. However, when the meteorite is captured by the earth's gravity and doesn't have the velocity for obit, it falls to the earth. Once it starts to fall, the velocity will be somewhere between 7 km/s-52 km/s. Remember, when they fall, they burn.
What, me worry? I'm protectedlease return to your normally scheduled non-panic.
This ones priceless.. I got to get one of them hats... 
