Asteroids Flyby — 2010 RF12 & 2010 RX30 118
Ernesto Guido writes "Two small asteroids (2010 RF12 & 2010 RX30) will pass within the Moon's distance of Earth today, September 08, 2010." One is 6-14 meters and the other is 10-20, so even if they change course, don't expect Bruce Willis to be called in.
Re:Bruce Willis (Score:3, Informative)
Purely from an entertainment perspective, it's fun and enjoyable (Tiny Lister alone makes it worth watching.) When you start focusing on scientific inaccuracy is when it starts to suck.
If you're able to disconnect yourself from "reality" and just watch a movie, you are almost guaranteed to enjoy it. If you have trouble disconnecting yourself, you will likely hate it.
Re:why not put something on there? (Score:3, Informative)
"Is the problem that they are always being detected too late to do anything with them?"
It can be, if they either come from the direction of the sun, or from the galaxy center where there's a lot of bright stars and other things moving, it can be more difficult to spot them. But while they're zipping past the earth at high speed is probably not the best place to intercept them anyway, as you need to get up to the speed 'n direction that they're travelling, and that direction is going to be altered somewhat as they pass by the earth, chasing them slightly further out is more likely going to be a lot easier. If there was enough interest in it.
Re:Bruce Willis (Score:3, Informative)
(Tiny Lister alone makes it worth watching.)
By not being in it? It was Michael Clarke Duncan playing the gigantic black guy in Armageddon.
Re:Not so small ... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, there would be damage, like the Tunguska event [wikipedia.org] in which estimates give it "a few tens of meters across", but the uninhabited area of the world is a lot larger than the inhabited area, so most chances are there would be few casualties, except if it explodes directly over a large city.
Re:Bruce Willis (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bruce Willis (Score:1, Informative)
I may be missing the point of the hyperbole but:
"21" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478087/
"The Godfather" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031679/
just to name a few of the good movies that have been made and are "realistic" - then there is "The Blair Witch Project" which, though annoying, boring, and a lot of other disrespectful phrases, none of which characterize the movie as "good", it was popular, and it was fully realistic.
so, sorry, your idea of "popular" and "Fully realistic" being impossible is "Total Crap"
In Other Armageddon News (Score:3, Informative)
The current cumulative impact probability of all objects tracked by SENTRY now exceeds 1.5% for the next 100 years. This is from ~300 known bodies with non-zero impact probability. They estimate that they've discovered 10% of such potential planetary post hole diggers.