Timothy Birdnow

The Earth will have a few close calls

"The asteroids - the biggest of which is predicted to measure up to 30 metres across - will whizz past our planet on November 10.

At around 14:03 GMT, an asteroid dubbed 2018 VS1 will pass the Earth.

This asteroid is predicted to measure between 13-28 metres across - suggesting the asteroid could be five times as tall as a giraffe!

Thankfully, NASA’s trajectory estimates indicate that 2018 VS1 will be around 861,700 miles away from Earth during its closest approach.

Just 16 minutes after 2018 VS1 passes our planet, another asteroid dubbed 2018 VR1 will swing by.

This asteroid is predicted to measure up to 30 metres wide, but thankfully will pass at a distance of 3.12 million miles from Earth. with asteroids over the weekend."

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And the last one will pass 237,037 miles from Earth sixteen minutes later.This is just about as far as the Earth from the Moon, so it isn't exactly going to buzz over our heads. It's a close call by astronomical measures, though. This will be the CLOSEST of the three asteroids.

So, no worries mate! We aren't going to get hit, not unless one of these things were to strike something we can't see and move in it's orbit. But that is very, very unlikely.

But what this does illustrate is that we are vulnerable, and no matter how proud we are of our civilization it could be taken out by forces we do not control. Any of these three asteroids hitting the Earth would be a disaster. and we have no way of stopping them at present. A larger asteroid, say, a mile across, would end our civilization.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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