Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jul 26, 2006 14:25:33 GMT -6
Asteroid (2006 OK3) Just Flew By ‘Too Close’
Just yesterday (July 24th) this 12 meter diameter rock came within .07 lunar distances from Earth. The distance between the Earth and Moon is approximately 238,857 miles or (384,403 kilometers). This means asteroid ‘2006 OK3’ came within 167,212 miles from a collision with our home. In the astronomical world this is a razors hair in distance.
The IAU Minor Planet Center announced this intruder just 3 days ago on Saturday July 22nd. Asteroid 2006 OK3 was discovered by the Siding Spring Survey in Australia at 1414 UT and was confirmed by that facility alone, which followed it for the next 31 minutes.
As asteroids go, "small" is defined as having an absolute magnitude (brightness) which converts very roughly to a diameter under 135 meters. No matter how close they come to the Earth, the astronomical community does not classify such objects as "potentially hazardous." However, as demonstrated by the mile wide (1.6 km.) Barringer Crater in Arizona, blasted out by a "small" asteroid some 50,000 years ago, there are asteroids too small to be labeled "potentially hazardous" that actually could cause severe local damage. These are sometimes called "Tunguska-class objects" (TCOs), after the 1908 event probably caused by a comet fragment or asteroid too small to be classified today as hazardous but packing enough wallop to flatten a Siberian forest area the size of a large city.
Source: tinyurl.com/oacjk
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I wonder why no mainstream press on this.
With the Norway impacts of recent and this fly by, I think we are at the beginnings of a debris field.
