A giant asteroid that will pass “too close” to the earth’s surface will be visible from the southern hemisphere (mostly southern America) tonight. What’s however, more significant (and alarming) to note is that celestial body will pass just 11,000 miles from the earth, barely missing the planet. Yeah, we know 11,000 miles is quite some distance – but in celestial terms, that distance is insignificant.
Even more alarming is the fact that this asteroid was spotted only recently by a telescope in New Mexico. It was only then that an alert was issued by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. Had this been on course to hit our planet, this would have meant Armaggedon and Deep Impact like scenes and massive loss of life.
Update: I guess we just went overboard with excitement over this celestial event. Anyway, as it turns out, the Asteroid is the size of a Bus and even if it was on course to hit the earth, the thing would have burned up whilst entering our atmosphere. Only some bits and pieces would have actually made it to the earth and would have resulted in a meteor shower when it disintegrated. Some other initial reports had estimated the size of the asteroid to be of a 4 storied building – which if was the case, would have resulted in a more alarming situation. This was much smaller.
This also reminds us of the fact that how vulnerable we are from threats like these from outer space. This asteroid was not detected until now even though we had set up plethora of instruments that can detect possible threats heading our way.
Like we said, the asteroid would be visible only in the South Americas tonight. In India, it would pass by during daytime so it would be pointless scourging for it during day time!
Phew!
This article is misleading and a piece of crap. The author should of stuck to the facts but he instead overly-voiced his opinion to convince the reader how dangerous and threatening the asteroid was, going so far as to compare it to past asteroids that hit the Earth. I couldn’t even read this article, it was trying to manipulate my perspective and used fear to catch the interest of the reader. What a waste of time.
@Ryan, if you recall, this thing was earlier reported as a “threat” even in the mainstream media. Only later was it revealed by a scientist and the size of the asteroid decreased to a few metres. This was written based on earlier reports about the asteroid being the size of a building which I tell you, is big enough for us to be alarmed. You mught want to read this? http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/asteroid-hits-earth.htm