| Moderated by: Joe Kelley | ||
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Joe Kelley Administrator
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AsteroidBased on current projections, the asteroid could swing close enough to our planet to disrupt some orbiting satellites on February 15, 2013. The International Space Station, circling the planet in low-Earth orbit (about 1,200 miles/2,000 kilometers up, or closer), is in no danger, Chodas said. ____________________ If it does hit either in 2020 or later, the asteroid is small enough that it wouldn't be a civilization-destroying hazard. Also, the rock approaches Earth from the south, making Antarctica or the Southern Ocean its most likely targets. Still, if the asteroid were to hit land, the impact of the 140,000-ton rock would release energy equivalent to a 2.4-megaton explosion, Chodas and other NASA scientists have calculated. That puts the space rock in the same class as the 1908 Tunguska blast, a mysterious event, likely tied to an asteroid or comet, in which hundreds of square miles of forest in Siberia were leveled. (See "A Hundred Years After Tunguska, Earth Not Ready for Meteors.") If the asteroid were to strike the ocean, Chodas added, it would produce a tsunami, although "it probably wouldn't be big." _______________________ |
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Joe Kelley Administrator
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Get a piece of the action In a Web posting, co-founder Peter Diamandis says that in the month and a half since the asteroid-mining project was unveiled, he and his colleagues "have been overwhelmed at the response from people begging to know how they can get involved." |
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