Keeping in mind that this object didn’t exist in our reality until a few days ago:
Just an afterthought, readers, to fill the gaps between the spectator sports, the Men Who Want to be King, and my own head-spinning attempts to establish clearly what’s not happening when.
APRIL 1st ASTEROID FLYBY: Newly discovered near-Earth asteroid 2012 EG5 is flying past Earth today about halfway between Earth and the Moon. There’s no danger of a collision. At closest approach on April 1st, the Dreamliner-sized space rock will be about 230,000 km from Earth. This morning in Brisbane, Australia, amateur astronomer Dennis Simmons photographed the incoming asteroid.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/outdoor-articles/astronomy/asteroid-2012-eg5-to-pass-clos/63486
The asteroid 2012 EG5 will pass close to Earth on Sunday morning at 5:32 a.m. EDT.
Asteroid 2012 EG5 is about 150 feet wide. While it will pass within 0.6 lunar distances (143,000 miles) of Earth, NASA reports that there is no danger of the asteroid striking the Earth.
Astronomers discovered the asteroid on March 13 while searching for large space rocks close to earth.
A second asteroid, 2012 FA57 was discovered by astronomers on March 28. Asteroid 2012 FA57 will pass by Earth on April 4. It will safely pass outside of the moons lunar distance.
The asteroid 2012 EG5 will be the third asteroid to pass close by Earth within a week.
Two smaller asteroids pass by Earth on Monday. The closest asteroid 2012 FS35 passed within 36,000 miles.
These [other two] space rocks were small enough that they would not survive a trip through Earth’s atmosphere.
If more people would watch TV election rhetoric or spend more time watching spectator sports this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. NASA and all those people looking at the sky are beginning to present a serious threat of creating something catastrophic happening.
A bunch of jockstraps chasing one another around a stadium are comparatively harmless compared to what these folks are doing. An asteroid the size of an airliner falling on, say, Washington, D.C., might injure innocent human beings who just happened to be passing through on their way somewhere else. Some degree of collateral damage seems inevitable, though maybe acceptable, overall.
In any case, that one passed a bit more than mid-way between the moon and earth. It only has to miss an inch higher than the highest obstruction to be completely harmless. Space is big and the odds are good any next ones will miss us at least an inch.
Just saying.
Old Jules
