In just a few hours, an asteroid will come closer to the Earth than the moon. That’s close.
No one seems to be talking about this, but… what if it hit?
Well, astronomers assure us that it won’t. But if it did, my research indicates that the energy would be equal to 60 kilotons — about 3 times the size of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
That’s bad.
Of course, since 70% of the Earth is covered by water, there’s a good chance it would hit an ocean.
If an asteroid a mile in diameter hits anywhere on the planet, it would likely end all life on Earth.
Read more about the asteroid here.
By the way, you can watch the asteroid pass by at the Virtual Telescope Project. The asteroid will be the closest to Earth at 4:07pm Eastern time (3:07pm Central, 1:07pm Pacific).
All of this strikes me as very Lovecraftian. We really need a way to stop potential asteroids from impacting Earth, don’t you think?
The Lovecraft eZine 
I assume it didn’t hit us.
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[sigh] Just when I overcame my night terrors!
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This is a fascinating — and frightening — topic for dark SF poetry. See one of mine, from 2012, here: http://www.abyssapexzine.com/2012/06/b53-elegy-amarillo-tx-102511-by-ann-k-schwader/
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If it’s Hale-Bopp you could hitch a ride. Marshall Applewhite and his Heaven’s Gate crew took a different exit the last time it was here. Now that’s too creepy even for H.P. himself.
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Okay, so this is an asteroid and that was a comet.
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This may be our big chance to get away from it all, depending on where you are standing at the time. The event would be so intense and fast that you would never see it coming at ground zero, you would just be vaporized out of existence.
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60 kilotons…not that big a deal. To quote from Dr. Strangelove, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed, but…
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The best thing that could happen to earth would be the eradication of the human race, the planet would eventually recover from the strike and we would most certainly not be missed.
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This too shall pass.
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Are we sure it’s not Glaaki? Or Lavos?
In all seriousness, I do think we need some kind of countermeasures in place to deal with asteroids, comets, and other foreign bodies that would do damage on a biblical scale to the world. This is all we’ve got for the moment, so we should do what we can to keep her safe!
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OOOPS!! the astronomers misplaced a decimal point. Nice knowing you!!
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