Massive Asteroid Flew By Earth Before Scientists Even Saw It

[RandySF]

Some days, scientists find asteroids months before they're expected to pass by our planet. Other days, those same crews may not notice a warehouse-sized asteroid zoomed by Earth until...well, it already zoomed by. That's the case recently with an asteroid officials are now calling 2021 SG, a space-faring rock that passed by the planet on September 16th — only scientists weren't able to see it because it came from the direction of the sun.

According to data released by the NASA-backed Minor Planet Center, 2021 SG has a diameter of anywhere between 42 meters and 94 meters. For non-scientists, that's roughly 138 feet to 308 feet. In comparison, it's about the size of Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World so, yeah, a hefty chunk of rock.

EarthSky suggests the asteroid passed by the planet at a distance comparable to half the distance from this planet to the moon. NASA considers anything passing by the planet within 121 million miles a "Near-Earth Object," meaning 2021 SG most certainly meets the qualifications. A similar asteroid broke up over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013 and sent shockwaves through six cities in the area. Around 1,500 Russians had to seek medical attention after the event, largely as a result of broken glass and flying debris.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/comicbook.com/irl/amp/news/massive-asteroid-2021-sg-warehouse-sized-zoom-by-earth/

[brush]

1. That was close. Too close.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Metric measurements are NORMAL for the world. US Exceptionalism "for scientists" & US Army. . .nt

[Klaralven]

9. It's not clear whether a Cinderella's Castle is a unit of length, cross sectional area or volume?

If it's diameter were twice as large, would its size be 2, 4 or 8 Cinderella's Castles?

[DBoon]

33. back in my day ...

... we measured things in units of Volkswagen beetles.

[Swede]

17. How many washing machines was this asteroid?

A sinkhole roughly the size of six to seven washing machines has closed the northbound lanes of State Line Road near 100th Street in Kansas City, Missouri.

Link to tweet

?lang=en

[MuseRider]

19. Explain please

in numbers of Ted Cruze.

(whale joke in case you have not seen it)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. You, Swede and Klaralven are very funny :) Good riffing off the Castle units idea! . . . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Fix your tracker link and credit the source!

Google does not need to know the reading habits of Democrats.

Is the source reliable? Who knows?

[USALiberal]

11. Lighten up.....

And google 2021 SG for other sources. Easy!!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Bless your heart! I would never have thought of your helpful suggestion!

[left-of-center2012]

4. Interesting

Thanks for posting

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Half the distance from here to the Moon?

Meh. No biggie.

[PJMcK]

7. An inch is as good as a mile, eh?

No biggie.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

31. Yep.

While not quite the same, I'll offer this. In about 4 or 5 billion years from now (brace yourself) our galaxy, Milky Way, will collide with the nearest large galaxy, Andromeda. Milky Way has about 300 billion stars. Andromeda is easily three times as large and has about one trillion stars. A while back I asked My Son The Astronomer just how many of those stars would actually crash into each other when the two galaxies merge, and he said, "Well we're not sure, but probably no more than ten."

That tells you just how vast interstellar distances are.

Okay, so a bunch more stars will probably interact gravitationally,, but still. Interstellar distances are truly vast.

I've gotten so I hate those depictions of stars in the galaxy that show then streaming by as if very close together. Sigh. They are n=ot remotely that close together.

And while we're talking, can we discuss all of the many types of radiation out there and how you'd be totally exposed to all of it traveling within our solar system.

[radicalleft]

6. It's a big ass sky

[twodogsbarking]

8. Maybe next time.

[newdayneeded]

10. Hmmm!

So what you're saying is tomorrow a rock twice that big could hit the earth with no warning, shielded by the sun's rays? Sleep tight everyone.

[paleotn]

13. Yes.....but the odds are in your favor.....

massively.

[MineralMan]

15. Exactly. However, detecting such objects does not cause them

to move and miss the Earth. At this time, we have zero capability to change the path of an asteroid of any size. So, we might get a warning from these programs that look for near earth asteroids, but that's it. There's nothing that can be done to prevent a collision.

So, I'm not sure how valuable a warning might be, unless it could pinpoint the location far enough ahead of time to allow for evacuation. That seems very unlikely to me.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. Be sure to publish the predicted impact location in nearby red states so they can rush there to get

... rush there to get good viewing positions!

You can be sure that if the location was to be published a bunch of anti-science protestors would go there right underneath.

[MineralMan]

27. I hadn't considered that. You're probably right, though.

[Fullduplexxx]

12. Seems we've had a lot of rocks doing fly-bys lately

[Sympthsical]

24. Probably the same rate as ever

As technology improves, we just spot them more and more.

I think if we knew just how much stuff is taking a shot at us at any given time, we'd be a continuously nervous people.

But hey, at least we figured out WR 104 - a massive star - isn't actually going to blow our faces off with a gamma ray burst. That was a legitimate concern for quite awhile.

[dweller]

16. Sorry ... my bad

The sun was in my eyes
🤨



✌🏻

[NickB79]

18. It would hit like a multi-megaton warhead

Not an extinction level event, but definitely enough to take out any city on Earth.

[Marius25]

20. I'm kinda surprised we don't get more meteor/asteroid impacts

[edhopper]

21. First

Last edited Sat Sep 25, 2021, 04:03 PM - Edit history (1)

in terms of asteroids, 42-94 meters is far from massive. It is barely a large rock.
And "Cinderella's Castle: has to be the weirdest reference.
Why not a large yacht, a 10 story building, a blimp. Cinderella's Castle is the last thing I think of in terms of astronomical objects.
And which Castle, Disneyland or Disneyworld?

[Sympthsical]

23. See, that reference totally made it for me

I was like, "Where the hell did the writer have that comparison floating in their head?" (It was Disney World)

50-100 meters is massive when considering the kinds of damage it could do. It would be catastrophic if it hit somewhere populated, particularly a large city. That Russian meteor back in 2013 was significantly smaller - only 20 meters - and did quite a bit of damage.

Scientists clock Tunguska at around 65 meters.

100 meters would pretty much destroy NYC if it hit. Even if it blew up in the atmosphere, the shock wave would destroy quite a bit, fires would start everywhere, and there'd be significant death.

Those things slap.

[edhopper]

32. True

but there are Near Earth Objects that are kilometers wide.

This was a big stone by comparison.

[Sympthsical]

22. That writer's shade tho . . .

has a diameter of anywhere between 42 meters and 94 meters. For non-scientists, that's roughly 138 feet to 308 feet.

Shots fired!

He was this close to comparing it to units of football field. (The upper limit actually was pretty much the size of a football field)

But then he pulls that Disney reference out of thin air, so I'll allow it.

[MineralMan]

28. Many non-scientists also understand metric measurements.

More probably should, it seems to me. It's not all that difficult, really.

[MineralMan]

29. The typical asteroid is travelling at about 18 km/s when it hits Earth

About 40,000 mph. Unless we're looking in the right direction, we won't detect most of them. I mean, we're looking for them, but it's not surprising that some don't get detected.

Even if we did, all we could do about it is provide some sort of warning that a collision was about to occur. Problem is: We won't be able to predict the point of impact until the asteroid is getting close. Think about it. At that speed, traveling the distance between the Earth and the Moon would take about 6 hours at that speed. Not much time to evacuate, I'd think.

We live in a cluttered region of space. The Earth gets slammed from time to time by asteroids of that size. Not much warning is possible, really, particularly for one that isn't detected far from the Earth.

[Tommymac]

30. Not to worry. There are plenty of Jewish Space Lasers on the job.

This has to be true, a member of Congress said so.