Those that follow events of this type will know about this event. All of humanity was spared from a 50-100 foot projectile moving at 9 miles per second, that's right, per second. That's 47,520 fps or 32,400 mph. It missed by about 26k miles, which, by astronomical standards lands in the 9 just barely outside the 10 ring bullseye. Fortunately, it was 4k miles outside the 22k mile geosynchronous satellite altitude. Geosynchronous and Geostationary are the altitude of nearly all communications satellites carrying telecommunications, radio (XM; Sirius uses Molniya orbits) and TV. Had it impacted even a single satellite it would precipitate the Kessler Syndrome, a domino effect of debris impacting and destroying other satellites that would create a junkyard cloud of debris consisting of everything man-made orbiting the earth. From my graduate level knowledge of astrodynamics, this is a very real hazard and its occurrence would make the use of any replacement man-made satellites all but impossible for many generations. It's an example of mechanical runaway feedback. The Kessler Syndrome was the premise of the 2013 Academy Award Best Picture film, Gravity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
See the animated graphic in the Wikipedia 2012 TC4 entry showing the Earth, a typical geosynchronous satellite, the Moon and the asteroid. How close it comes is, what we used to characterize crudely as not just a CH, but a Red CH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_TC4
Newsweek article:
Watch Asteroid TC4?s Extreme Close Approach With Earth Live Online
NASA article:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/this-is-a-test-asteroid-tracking-network-observes-oct-12-close-approach
Next time you land just outside the 10 ring bull by just barely a hair, if that much, think of asteroid 2012 TC4 and yesterday's very, very near miss. Be glad it was a miss. A 50-100 footer impacting Earth would create a non-trivial very dramatic air burst in the upper atmosphere. The shock wave would cause damage and injury, potentially thousandsPrecipitating the Kessler Syndrome barreling through the 22k mile high overcrowded geosynchronous satellite altitude at 32,400 mph would take us back to 1960 regarding space based communications, geolocation and weather technology. A much larger asteroid would impact the Earth itself and flip relative consequences around.
Asteroid size vs impact effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
John
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
See the animated graphic in the Wikipedia 2012 TC4 entry showing the Earth, a typical geosynchronous satellite, the Moon and the asteroid. How close it comes is, what we used to characterize crudely as not just a CH, but a Red CH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_TC4
Newsweek article:
Watch Asteroid TC4?s Extreme Close Approach With Earth Live Online
NASA article:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/this-is-a-test-asteroid-tracking-network-observes-oct-12-close-approach
Next time you land just outside the 10 ring bull by just barely a hair, if that much, think of asteroid 2012 TC4 and yesterday's very, very near miss. Be glad it was a miss. A 50-100 footer impacting Earth would create a non-trivial very dramatic air burst in the upper atmosphere. The shock wave would cause damage and injury, potentially thousandsPrecipitating the Kessler Syndrome barreling through the 22k mile high overcrowded geosynchronous satellite altitude at 32,400 mph would take us back to 1960 regarding space based communications, geolocation and weather technology. A much larger asteroid would impact the Earth itself and flip relative consequences around.
Asteroid size vs impact effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
John
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