Or 26,000 miles from the surface. Still just a bright dot passing through the
night sky.
It is interesting to note that small asteroids pass closer than the moon
regularly, almost once per year in recent years if I read the data from the
Harvard-Smithsonian CfA correctly.
Perhaps this will be a good chance to test an asteroid defense vehicle, after
the rock passes. Nuclear bomb or other propulsion based, we ought to test a
system for the purpose. Perhaps public concern over this one could be used to
pry funding from the politicians, perhaps for SDIO or NASA.
I wish people would list the relative velocity for these objects the way they
mention diameter, there is considerable variation in orbital velocity for
asteroids, yes? Impact energy would go up with the square of the velocity and
the cube of the diameter, obviously.
-PW