Asteroid shaves past Earth

A recently discovered asteroid, 2011 CQ1, with a diameter 1,3 meters, shaved past the Earth at a distance of 5480 km at 1940GMT on Friday, February 4. In comparison, the distance from the Earth to the Moon is 380 000 km and TV-satelites orbit the Earth at a height of 36 000 km. There was still never any danger that an object of this size would cause any ground damage, NASA said.

Interesting that this close to collision occured while the planet Mars was in exact conjunction (cazimi) with the Sun, as observed from Earth. At the same time, southern parts of Norway witnessed strong northern lights from a powerful solar wind. Earlier this week, NASA announced their discovery of a solar system with close resemblances to our own, Kepler 11.

Source: Aftenposten, Space.com

Hi Andrew,

Apparently scientists believe this kind of event is quite common. The object was only the size of an armchair and would easily have burnt up in Earth's atmosphere.

http://www.space.com/9091-asteroid-miss ... tists.html

I am not sure why this asteroid got all this publicity really.

Still, the possibility of a large asteroid or comet impact is something we all need to take seriously. Watch the skies!

Mark

Maybe the publicity is due to the cazimi conditon of Mars. But astronomers are VERY publicity hungry at present. Some of the publicity stunts border to a point of loosing credibility. Or they have the need to summon an excitement and interest that will grant them the funds to realize some of their rather expensive and questionable dreams.