Asteroid's Near Miss A Cosmic Close Call

(AP)  An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed the Earth.

The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth when it zipped past early Monday, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.

That is just twice as high as the orbits of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon.

"This was pretty darn close," astronomer Timothy Spahr of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Wednesday.

But not as close as the tiny meteoroid 2004 FU162, which came within 4,000 miles in 2004.

The space rock measured between 69 feet (21 meters) and 154 feet (47 meters) in diameter. The Planetary Society said that made it about the same size as the asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest.

Scientists at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia spotted 2009 DD45 and began tracking it in late February when it was about 1 million miles away.

Spahr said he knew within an hour of that discovery that it would pose no threat to Earth.

Of the known space rocks, the next time an object will get closer to Earth will be in 2029 when an 885 foot asteroid called 99942 Apophis comes within 20,000 miles, said Donald Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Last year, the asteroid 2008 TC3 harmlessly burned up in Earth's atmosphere over Africa 19 hours after it was discovered. Astronomers gave a six-hour notice warning of that fiery plunge.

[joecbs]

many books that i have read have said that the asteroids that come close to earth bring a certain energy . kryon was one of those books. a friend of mine gave me a piece of a small rock from space that hit her dads car . i only got half of the rock the other half was studied by scientists. kind of reminded me of a stargate episode.

[loneeagle57]

Actually It has been proven that no matter what happens to the planet whether we f#%$ it up or by some other means like an asteroid impact, the earth will always repair itself. The question is could we survive while it does? I honestly believe that the planet has a way of destroying the lifeforms that cause it the greatest damage. It really isn't recorded but I believe that the world was extremely populated once before. Then the ice age occured. there for wiping out a large number of our species. The planet will correct itself. It has before. Only we might be our own downfall. This is loneeagle57. good day.

[spiritwalk]

spiritwalk, I am starting to think you may be the most intelligent person to sign onto the CBS comment section since I started posting here.
Posted by rf35
?????????..
Thank you for the nice compliment, but it is not a question of intelligence, just a rejection of propaganda, or more precisely, a rejection of any and all b*&&s#@t placed before me to swallow.

Democrats and Republicans are both talking s#@t so I listen to what they are both not saying to figure out what they are up to.

Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh are both talking s#@t, so I listen for what they both are not talking about to figure out what is going on.

The key for me came from watching David Susskind years ago. He was a very strange talk show host. When he conducted an interview he always seemed totally lost. His guest would come out and give their story and Susskind would have a dismayed and ask the to explain it again. Susskind would do this maybe 3 or 4 times.

I used to think Susskind was rather slow, then it hit me what a genius he was.

Someone would come on with an agenda to push and they had their speech all mapped out. Susskind would feign stupidity and ask them to explain it again. The second time they would explain it more simply and simpler each time he asked to explain it again. They would want to get their agenda across so that each time they explained it again they edited out more and more of the b*&&s#@t. In the end, Susskind got the story without the b*&&s#@ and you realized that they had nothing to say at all.

[spiritwalk]

Run chicken lil runnnnnnn.....
Posted by skarrzpop
.........................................
Run where?

In a minute or a millennium, Nature can wipe out mankind and there is no place you can run to avoid being wiped out yourself.

I know that people believe if they read the bible and vote a straight Republican ticket they will be spared...sorry!

And for those who think that driving a hybrid and switching to recycled toilet paper will save them...sorry as well!

Believe what you please, but to the Earth we're just fleas.

[rf35]

spiritwalk, I am starting to think you may be the most intelligent person to sign onto the CBS comment section since I started posting here.

[skarrzpop]

Run chicken lil runnnnnnn.....

[spiritwalk]

This could be our government's way to keep our country's population under control. Maybe places with a bigger crisis like China should take heed.
Posted by loneeagle57
.................................................................
China has a one child per family policy, the US can't even come up with an AIDS policy because condoms are "immoral" and a threat to "family-values". That mind set has to change before anything can be done.

But, birth control is a double edge sword.

In the early part of the 20th century as the first serious discussions about birth control were beginning the theory of "eugenics" was gaining popularity. However, the idea was hijacked by elements who wanted to pervert it to a policy of forced sterilization and racial cleansing and the basic premise was lost.

The primary idea was that, with the advances in medical science the death rate was dropping, therefore the rate of population growth was expanding and would expand to a point where it would go beyond the point of sustainable resources. So, an intelligent approach to birth control had to be found. Of course, "intelligent" and "population" are mutually exclusive concepts.

The people that would use birth control are the "intelligent" ones who want to try to control the population. Therefore the number of intelligent people having offspring would drop and the percenatge of intelligent people in the population would also drop. The population would be "dumbed down". Then you add to the equation the other idea that eugenics put forward of the number of people who would have died before reaching child bearing age before modern medicine and you have a growing percentage of people with genetic dispositions to illness in the population.

Not to single out one particular group, but with the advances in the treatment of diabetes people with diabetes are living to child bearing years and having children with a pre-disposition to diabetes. So the incidence of diabetes in the population will grow and it isn't all McDonalds fault.

The problem could be addressed with genetic research, but the US can't come up with a genetic reseach policy because it is "immoral" and a threat to "family-values.

So we are right back where we started.

[loneeagle57]

Could be cured with a MASSIVE reduction in the human population (a topic NOBODY wants to touch, but is relevant..............Posted by dkhorse11 at 4:06 PM


..........
Actually I was thinking along those lines the other day. There is one good way to reduce the human population that doesn't involve a natural disaster. That is war. Every decade the United States has been involved in one war or another. This could be our government's way to keep our country's population under control. Maybe places with a bigger crisis like China should take heed.

[dkhorse11]

Damn, I wish it had hit!

Global warming (and other mankind ills) could be cured with a MASSIVE reduction in the human population (a topic NOBODY wants to touch, but is relevant) and then someone looks at an asteroid, and whew! Dodged a bullet. Most of the problems could be cured with LESS people, but again, lets not go there. Clean water! Not a problem with less people, but hey kill that guy over there because he has it. Now that?s the way to go!

Resources someone has that someone else doesn't, and we keep dreaming of everyone having the same thing, oooh, what happy thoughts!


Dreams and reality........... when will people realize they don't actually coexist!

[toolmangler-2009]

As for man's ability to survive against Nature one need only look back at the sunami. The animals sensed it and ran for the hills, the humans saw it and ran for their video cameras.
Posted by spiritwalk at 3:54 PM : Mar 4, 2009





Thats because 'Life' as 'we' know it is 100% fatal!!