An asteroid the size of a tall building will pass by earth at about 30,000 MPH today. Unfortunately, the closest it will come to impact is about 3.6 million miles away before it travels by earth and back out into space without delivering us the sweet release of global destruction.
According to NASA, 2013 MD8 (a Near-Earth Object – NEO) will fly by Earth around 11:55 a.m. CT: “On Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at 12:55 PM EST (2019-Feb-19 17:55 UTC), Near Earth Object (2013 MD8), between 38 and 86 meters (126 to 282 feet) in size, will pass the Earth at 15.1 lunar distances, traveling at 13.60 kilometers per second (30,418 miles per hour).”
3.6 million miles is a very long way by Earth standards, but astronomically speaking it’s pretty damned close. Unfortunately, not close enough though.
The asteroid, named 2013 MD8, is a pretty good size asteroid and would have fucked us up pretty good if it hit us, but an asteroid would have to be at least one kilometer in diameter to cause death and destruction on a global scale.
Fortunately, asteroids fly by earth all the time, so it’s only a matter of time before one finally hits us and puts everyone out of their misery. Astronomers know of more than 15,000 near-Earth asteroids to date, but there are literally millions of unknown and uncatalogued rocks that have the potential to hit us.
The good news is that one day an asteroid will hit earth and destroy us all. The bad news is that it probably won’t happen in the next few weeks or even four years. But don’t give up all hope, asteroids are really hard to find, we discover them all the time, and one could be headed toward us a lot sooner than we think.
[yarpp]
