Sunday - July 02, 2006

Deep Impact Avoided?

Whew! For a minute there I was scared. Only 270,000 miles away? Heck, in space terms that’s a cat’s whisker. At a half mile wide, this monster is big enough to cause another extinction level event (ELE) even worse than the last one that allegedly killed all those cute dinosaurs we all came to love so much. I am urging everyone to go out in the woods and find a spotted owl, take it home and protect it ... just in case.

I’m sure this is a result of glowball warming. Think about it! A warmer planet attracts all kinds of frozen strange rocks floating around out there. They just want to get warm, like everyone else so you better trade in your huge, honking SUV for a Yugo ASAP or we’re all doomed. Then again ... it’s probably all George W. Bush’s fault. Yeah, I just know it’s an evil neo-con plot. They want to destroy all the Liberals with a big rock. I just know it.

Asteroid Set For Close Encounter
_{(BBC) - Saturday, 1 July 2006, 06:53 GMT 07:53 UK}

A large asteroid is set to pass Earth in a close encounter which scientists say will pose no danger. The asteroid, estimated at half a mile (800m) wide, will sweep within 270,000 miles (433,000km) of the planet - only slightly further away than the moon.

“It’s not Earth-threatening,” said Don Yeomans, who heads Nasa’s Near Earth Object Program. The asteroid, 2004 XP14, should be visible by telescope from N America and Europe, most clearly on Monday.

Asteroid-spotters should look towards the Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cephus, constellations to try to spot it. It will appear as a moving dot against the stars, said Roger Sinnott, of Sky and Telescope magazine.

The asteroid is expected to pass the Earth on a number of future occasions too, but scientists believe it is likely to be further away on future passes. The asteroid, which was discovered in 2004, is one of the largest of several dozen asteroids to have passed near Earth in recent years.

“For something of this size to come this close is unusual,” Mr Yeomans said. US scientists will use a radar beacon at the Goldstone Observatory in the Mojave Desert to work out more about the asteroid’s shape, and about its likely future course.

It is among 783 asteroids currently classified as potentially hazardous by the Minor Planet Centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, because of its size and proximity to Earth.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 10:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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