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February 4, 2005
Close call
Astronomer's are tracking the closest ever fly-by of an asteroid that Earth has seen in the modern age. The Asteroid, named MN4, will pass so close to the Earth that it will be inside the orbit of many geo-stationary satellites orbiting the Earth. It will also be visible to the naked eye by observers in Europe, Africa and West Asia. It's not a tiny rock, but it's not huge either. Scientist's estimate that if the rock were to strike the Earth, local devastation would be sever, but not enough to create dramatic climate change. There appears to be little risk of the object striking us, however, it's a very, very close call.
UPDATE: I should note that this fly-by is in 2029. Also, in case you didn't realize (I didn't), there's a Torino Scale that measures the severity of impact, kinda like a Richter Scale on steroids.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at February 4, 2005 1:26 PM
