this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Summary

A 27-inch asteroid, C0WEPC5, entered Earth's atmosphere over Siberia on Tuesday, creating a harmless but visible fireball.

This marked Earth's fourth detected asteroid strike of the year and only the 11th "imminent impactor" ever recorded.

The asteroid was detected by the Kitt Peak National Observatory ahead of impact, showcasing advancements in asteroid detection.

Separately, a larger asteroid, 2020 XR, measuring 1,200 feet in diameter, will safely pass Earth on Wednesday at a distance of 1.37 million miles.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Separately, a larger asteroid, 2020 XR, measuring 1,200 feet in diameter, will safely pass Earth on Wednesday at a distance of 1.37 million miles.

If we pray to it, do you think it'll deign to hit us?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, it’s only like 350 meters wide.

The big one that took out the dinosaurs was 10 to 15 kilometers.

A 350 meter asteroid would just make a lot of noise and make a little splash if it survived to hit the ocean, or a little hole in the ground if it managed to strike land.

We need to pray for bigger space rocks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

350m is definetely going to make a strong impact.

The Tunguska Asteroid was expected to be 50-60m in width https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

And that released 3 - 50 Megatons of energy. For reference the nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had about 20 kilotons. So about a one thousands of that. The greatest man made explosion, the sowjet Tsar bomb had about 50 Megatons of energy.

A 350m asteroid has about 7 times that length and probably at least three times the diameter. So we are looking at an impact with the mass of at least 50x that, so 150 - 2500 Megatons. If that hits central Europe the immediate blast would probably kill a few hundred million people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What if I pray for it to hit me, specifically

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Hey, no hogging the roid!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I think many of these asteroids are caused by an intergalactic alien game of 'Road Bowling' and aliens just drunkenly throwing asteroids as far as they can while having a laugh at the local bar.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There's a not so great book called The Killing Star, where aliens that are never described in the book decide for an unknown reason that we need to be destroyed, so they just hurl as many asteroids as they can at our solar system. It worked pretty well.

Not a bad "low-tech" way to destroy a rival civilization in another solar system. A good idea in an otherwise disappointing book.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You might enjoy a similar plotline in the excellent Bobiverse book series. (I don't think it shows up until the second or maybe even third book, so don't go in expecting that immediately.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Arthur C. Clark "The Hammer of God"

Star Trek "The Paradise Syndrome"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Just glancing at what those books are about, they sound fun and I'll check them out, thanks. In the case of The Killing Star, that was the plot point that attracted me to it, but the execution was clumsy and the ending was not exactly a cliffhanger, but it didn't feel like a resolution either.

When I was done reading it, my dog decided it needed to be chewed up. It was the only time she ever chewed up a book. I guess she felt even more strongly about it than I did.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, I know that kind of book you mean. It's not a popular opinion, but I felt similarly about Annihilation (though I only read the first book of the series, so maybe things would have improved later).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

They got us with the pog, missed us with the slammer.

(I actually have no idea how pogs work)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago

They usually try to avoid planets with intelligent life but we recently fell below the threshold