Remember in November I posted about an asteroid near miss? I used a 24 foot Aquasport as an analogy. Basketball sized earth at the bow, tennis ball moon sitting on the Mercury engine at the stern. The asteroid missed the moon by just four feet but well clear of the bow.
But on Friday February 15, 2013 the Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be much closer to the basketball in the bow. If you lined up three basketballs on the bow the asteroid would hit the outermost one! That is pretty close. And we just found this asteroid this year (hence the name.) This asteroid will be within the orbits of some of our satellites circling the earth.
There will be a lot of hype that day but it won’t get us, at least this time. And this asteroid is only 150 feet across. The impact on earth would only be equivalent to a thermonuclear bomb but shoot, lots of water to hit. They will get better tracking info in 2013 so when it again plays dodgeball with earth in 2020 we will have Bruce Willis ready to go push it out of the way.
Come to think of it, that weekend might be a good time to schedule the next Dodgeball Tournament with an Armageddon theme.
Good Morning Gloucester 