Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Doesn't 'Near Miss' Mean it Hit?

Apparently there was an asteroid near miss on Monday. The asteroid, called 2009 DD45 (why don’t they give ‘em better names, like they do hurricanes?) passed the moon and came within 40,000 miles of Earth. Although not large, it would’ve done significant damage if it had hit Earth. Unfortunately, due to its smallish size, it seems there was only about two days warning!

Of course, this isn’t the first near miss we’ve had. There seems to be one reported nearly every year.

So, whilst we’re all worrying about the global economy and climate change, it’s reassuring to know that we could all be wiped out one day by a big chunk of space rock. That kinda puts things into perspective.

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