Small Asteroid To Pass Close To Earth Tomorrow

Matt_dk writes "A small asteroid will pass very close to Earth this Tuesday. Astronomers are still tracking the object, now designated as 2010 TD54, and various estimates say it should come within anywhere from 52,000 km (33,000 miles) to 64,000 km (40,000 miles) on October 12, with closest approach at approximately 11:25 UT."

Fuuny coincidence?

[ls671]

In other news "retired Air Force officer, Stanley A. Fulham", whoever that guy might be, "predicts October 13, 2010 as the date for a massive UFO display over the world’s principal cities". ;-) Given the distance, can we really be sure it is an asteroid ?

http://www.disclose.tv/forum/october-13-2010-worldwide-ufo-display-t33304.html [disclose.tv]

Geosync is only 26200 miles

[vlm]

Geosync is only 26200 miles ... the uncertainty is almost large enough that it could hit a geosync satellite. If only they provided a std deviation or some other probability metric.

Re:This is a bit worrisome . . .

[Phleg]

Unfortunately, no. About half the asteroids that could hit us come from the daytime sky (e.g., from the direction of the sun). We stand essentially zero chance of spotting any of these any time in the near future.

Re:Why is this news?

[Spatial]

Check out this video [youtube.com].

An animated overview of the Solar System showing the last 30 years of asteroid discoveries and their orbits. It's to scale, created from real data. Pretty awesome.