In galactic terms, it’s what you call a pair of near misses. Today, Wednesday the 8th, 2010, Earth will get buzzed by not one, but two different asteroids, and they’ll be close. They’ll actually come close enough to Earth to pass between the orbit of the Earth and the moon, which is like the interplanetary equivalent of getting shot at and having the bullet rip through your shirt sleeve, yet not hit your arm.
This is why NASA needs to develop an asteroid defense plan like Russia has, because we didn’t get much warning on the approach of these two asteroids. The asteroids were first caught by the Catalina Sky Survey in Tuscon, Arizona, early Sunday morning; their paths were computed by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, later that day. Granted, these two asteroids are small: 2010 RX30 is 32-65 feet in width while 2010 RF12 is 20-46 feet wide. That said, it doesn’t take much in the way of asteroid collisions to cause a lot of problems for a planet and send humanity scurrying for fallout shelters.
If you’d like to see the asteroids’ close approach, you’ll need an actual telescope to view them. The dark specks won’t be visible to the naked eye. RX30 came near Earth at about 5:51 this morning and RF12 will pass within 50,000 miles of Earth at about 5:12 PM this afternoon (both times Eastern Daylight Time).
Tags: NASA, near-Earth orbit, two asteroids to pass by earth today, two asteroids to get close to earth, Catalina Sky Survey, Tuscon, Arizona, Minor Planet Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010 RX30, 2010 RF12, asteroid watch, close calls
