Asteroid today
 

Dave, get your telescope and take us a picture !



Air & Space
Car-Size Asteroid Breezes Past Earth
By Tariq Malik

Published February 08, 2011
| Space.com

An asteroid about the size of a car will pass close by Earth Wednesday (Feb. 9), the second space rock in five days to fly near – but pose no threat of hitting – our planet.

The asteroid is called 2011 CA7 and will fly within 64,300 miles (103,480 kilometers) of Earth tomorrow, according to an alert from NASA's Asteroid Watch program. It is about 9 1/2 feet across (nearly 3 meters) and was discovered by astronomers earlier this month.

The asteroid will make its closest pass by Earth at around 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT), according to the small-body database overseen by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

On Feb. 4, the asteroid 2011 CQ 1 sailed within 3,400 miles (5471 km) of Earth during its brief encounter. That asteroid was about 4 feet (1.3 meters) wide, less than half the size of 2011 CA7.

For comparison, the distance between Earth and the moon is about 238,900 miles (384,402 km).

Damn and the weather has us socked in most the day. still seeing a 9 foot rock at 65,000 miles is a bit of a challenge :)

If it was clear and above 10 degrees tonite I'd give it a shot. Might anyway.

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Just wait 20 more years for the 900' Astroid thats set to pass close by/potentially hit in 203?.

How is he gonna do that when the world will end in 2012?

I thought the world ended at midnight Jan 1, 2000.

Rusty: Hey, ya' got Pac Man?
Cousin Dale: No.
Rusty: Ya' got Space Invaders?
Cousin Dale: Nope.
Rusty: Ya' got Asteroids?
Cousin Dale: Naw, but my dad does. Can't even sit on the toilet some days.