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Giant asteroid with its own moon to pass by Earth this weekend

We Never Know

No Slack
One day a large one won't just pass by. Anyways..

An asteroid nearly a mile wide with a moon of its own is expected to pass by Earth this weekend, traveling at 48,000 mph. The space rock, known as asteroid 1999 KW4, was discovered 20 years ago and is so large that it is orbited by a moon.

On Saturday evening, 1999 KW4 will make its closest approach to Earth. It will be visible until May 27. Because it carries a large moon along with it, the asteroid is technically designated as a binary system.

Giant asteroid with its own moon to pass by Earth this weekend
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
One day a large one won't just pass by. Anyways..

An asteroid nearly a mile wide with a moon of its own is expected to pass by Earth this weekend, traveling at 48,000 mph. The space rock, known as asteroid 1999 KW4, was discovered 20 years ago and is so large that it is orbited by a moon.

On Saturday evening, 1999 KW4 will make its closest approach to Earth. It will be visible until May 27. Because it carries a large moon along with it, the asteroid is technically designated as a binary system.

Giant asteroid with its own moon to pass by Earth this weekend

What if the asteroid, and it's moon did hit the earth? How bad would the devestation be?
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
What if the asteroid, and it's moon did hit the earth? How bad would the devestation be?

It's a mile wide and traveling at 48,000 mph. It would be catastrophic. It might destroy mankind, but I can't estimate its likelihood of sterilizing the earth. The dinosaur extinction event involved a larger asteroid, so that seems unlikely.
 

Salvador

RF's Swedenborgian
It's important to get the technology to divert these things soon.

Antimatter created from a lunar-based particle accelerator could be electromagnetically sealed and safely stored far away from the Earth on the Moon and then transported on a rocket to any potentially Earth-bound asteroid where the antimatter would be released for blasting apart the asteroid.

antimatter_containment_pod_tech_readout_by_unusualsuspex-d7iuhmh.jpg
 
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Cooky

Veteran Member
It's a mile wide and traveling at 48,000 mph. It would be catastrophic. It might destroy mankind, but I can't estimate its likelihood of sterilizing the earth. The dinosaur extinction event involved a larger asteroid, so that seems unlikely.

I wonder if everyone on earth would feel the ground rumble when it hit.
 

siti

Well-Known Member
I wonder if everyone on earth would feel the ground rumble when it hit.
Presumably not the people who were immediately nearby - they would be too busy leaping several thousand feet into the air and scattering what was left of themselves over a wide area.
 

Salvador

RF's Swedenborgian
What if the asteroid, and it's moon did hit the earth? How bad would the devestation be?

A mile-wide asteroid impacting the Earth's surface at about 30,000 mph would have the energy of ca. a 1 million megaton bomb.

What if an asteroid hit the Earth?

This is a bit more than 140 times the energy that'd be released if the Earth's entire nuclear arsenal were simultaneously detonated.

https://www.quora.com/How-much-powe...l-the-nuclear-bombs-and-warheads-in-the-world


 
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Skwim

Veteran Member
.

Let's see.

"During the approach of May 25, 2019, the asteroid will pass at the very safe distance of 3,219,955 miles from Earth (5,182,015 km),
or about 13.5 times the Earth-moon distance."

source


asteroid distance from earth.png




1*Z4NTvY3umivs1tKrtUVB3Q.png
.
 
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