Asteroid Passes (Just) 65,000 Miles From Earth 96
An anonymous reader writes "Discovered a day before its closest approach to Earth, Asteroid 2013 LR6 came within roughly 65,000 miles of the planet as it flew over the Southern Ocean of Tasmania, Australia at 12:42 a.m. EDT on June 8. Despite being more than half the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February, the 30-foot-wide asteroid posed no threat, according to NASA."
Flew? (Score:5, Insightful)
"as it flew over the Southern Ocean of Tasmania, Australia"
At 65,000 miles out, its not flying. (its in orbit around the sun)
And the southern ocean does not belong to Tasmania, or even Australia
Re:Flew? (Score:2, Insightful)
And at 65000 miles, Earth subtends a 14 angle (an apple at arms length). So it's hardly "over" a single point off Tasmania, as opposed to "over" the whole hemisphere.
Slashdot doesn't do the markup for degrees? Jerks.
Re:Hindsight (Score:4, Insightful)
is how we gather statistics from the past to generate probabilities for predicting the future. The More You Know.