nPostednon March 23, 2014
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| ^ THIS is so much better than THAT. v |
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nInn1989, an asteroid larger than an aircraft carrier whistled by thenEarth, missing all of us by about 400,000 miles (640,000 km)! n
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nItnwas traveling 46,000 miles per hour!
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nThenasteroid passed through the exact spot where the Earth was just sixnhours before!
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nBut…itnmay surprise you to know that the asteroid, called 4581 Asclepius,nwasn’t even discovered by scientists until AFTER it had passed!
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nIfnwe had gotten hit, it would have been a huge shock—in more waysnthan one—we hadn’t even seen it coming!
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nThatnnear miss, which we didn’t even know about until we were out ofndanger, acted as a wake-up call. The U.S. Congress directed NASA tonstudy near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets, to determinenas exactly as possible their orbits. It also directed NASA to come upnwith some strategies of how to deal with a space rock that turns outnto be on a trajectory to hit us.
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nThenpublic got interested in the topic of a possible city-ending—orneven civilization-ending, or world-ending—impact. There have beennat least six (count ’em, six!) movies about space rocks hitting—ornthreatening to hit—the Earth since 1989: Deep Impact,nArmageddon, Meteorites, Asteroid, DoomsdaynRock, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. n
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nOfncourse, space rocks have come closer to Earth than 4581nAsclepius—indeed, as you know, some meteorites have actually strucknour planet!—but nothing the size of 4581 Asclepius has hit innrecorded history. To give you a comparison, the Chelyabinsk meteornthat made such big news in February 2013 was estimated to be about 20nmeters (65 feet) across, and the powerful Tunguska explosion of 1908 was caused by an asteroid from 45 to 70 meters (150 to 230nfeet) across—but 4581 Asclepius is about 300 meters (1,000 feet) inndiameter!
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| We have a lot of footage of the Chelyabinsk meteor, thanks to dashboard cameras. |
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nThesendays, at least 8 surveys are part of the Spaceguard effort tondiscover and study near-Earth objects. (The name “Spaceguard” wasnfirst created by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke innhis book Rendezvous with Rama.) The effort to observe and catalog near-Earth objects and keep tracknof their orbits and whereabouts is the first step to protecting usnfrom an impact like the one believed to have wiped out the mightyndinosaurs.
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nAlsonon this date:
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Anniversary of an influential speech
Anniversary of an influential speech
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nPakistannDay
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nNationalnPuppy Day
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nWorldnMeteorological Day
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nAnniversarynof the coining of the word “okay” (America’sn“Greatest Word”)
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nn Marchn holidays
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n n Historicaln anniversaries in March
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nApriln holidays
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nApriln birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in April
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