Asteroid near miss newsworthy?

[Satyrquaze]

Today, a 37' diameter (yes, 37 feet) asteroid came within 37,000 miles of the earth.

Linky

The huge rock, called Asteroid 2012 BX34, will close to within about 36,750 miles of Earth, or about .17 times the distance between the Earth and the moon, according to a Twitter post from Asteroid Watch, which is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Near Earth Object Office.

The Asteroid Watch Twitter post says basically that the rock would have burnt up within the atmosphere had it been on a trajectory to strike us.

With all the tons of junk floating around in near-earth space how is this a news item? It flew past us and even if it was going to hit us it would have done little to no damage.

This sorta struck me as:

***BREAKING NEWS***
Chickasaw, AL

A young girl was alarmed today as a bumblebee flew within a few feet of her. She briefly considered that the bumblebee might have landed upon her and if it had been agitated, stung her. When reported her mother fell down upon her knees and thanked "Almitey Gawd" for her daughter's salvation.

The bumblebee could not be reached for comment.

 

[MetroKid]

I think it is news worthy, even if it is harmless. Why? Because it raises space awareness in a population that prides itself on scientific ignorance. And who knows, that very story may inspire a child to pursue an education and career in science, and lord only knows we need more people like that.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I agree. The media loves sensationalizing things like this. I remember just a few months ago a big deal was made of another near miss. Truth is, there's an infinitely small chance of them hitting anything.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Near miss? It would have been deadly if there was no atmosphere.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuCN6CD8j_s[/yt]

 

[JarodRussell]

Near miss? It would have been deadly if there was no atmosphere.

Not sure if serious.

 

[Mr. B]

On a slow news day, why the hell not?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Near miss? It would have been deadly if there was no atmosphere.

Yeah, point is that it was nowhere near being a near miss. The media sees an asteroid and says, "Ohhh look, an asteroid! Careful, it might crash into us!" When in effect, there are thousands of asteroids getting close to Earth all the time and aren't usually worth mentioning.

 

[Gryffindorian]

37,000 miles? Fuck, it came so close to hitting my Corolla.

 

[ByrdMan]

^Astronomically speaking, it came DAMN close!

 

[Nowhere Man]

You can always count on Carlin for a little perspective. There's a person I miss.

 

[M'Sharak]

Today, a 37' diameter (yes, 37 feet) asteroid came within 37,000 miles of the earth.

Linky

The huge rock, called Asteroid 2012 BX34, will close to within about 36,750 miles of Earth, or about .17 times the distance between the Earth and the moon, according to a Twitter post from Asteroid Watch, which is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Near Earth Object Office.

The Asteroid Watch Twitter post says basically that the rock would have burnt up within the atmosphere had it been on a trajectory to strike us.

With all the tons of junk floating around in near-earth space how is this a news item? It flew past us and even if it was going to hit us it would have done little to no damage.

I don't remember how many near-Earth objects Asteroid Watch is currently tracking, but it's a lot. What it looks like CNN did is to make a routine "here's what's happening today" report into something which sounds more impressive than it is. This one passed closer than most, but "huge" it's not and, on anything but a slow news day, probably not worth commenting on.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Today, a 37' diameter (yes, 37 feet) asteroid came within 37,000 miles of the earth.

Linky

The huge rock, called Asteroid 2012 BX34, will close to within about 36,750 miles of Earth, or about .17 times the distance between the Earth and the moon, according to a Twitter post from Asteroid Watch, which is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Near Earth Object Office.

The Asteroid Watch Twitter post says basically that the rock would have burnt up within the atmosphere had it been on a trajectory to strike us.

With all the tons of junk floating around in near-earth space how is this a news item? It flew past us and even if it was going to hit us it would have done little to no damage.

I don't remember how many near-Earth objects Asteroid Watch is currently tracking, but it's a lot. What it looks like CNN did is to make a routine "here's what's happening today" report into something which sounds more impressive than it is. This one passed closer than most, but "huge" it's not and, on anything but a slow news day, probably not worth commenting on.

Exactly what I've tried saying. The media likes to make it bigger than it really is.

 

[M'Sharak]

^ Yup - that's what they do.

Took me a few minutes to locate, but here's a vid which gives an idea of how many objects Asteroid Watch is keeping track of. At the beginning of the clip can be seen the ones which were known as of 1980, and more appear (in the order in which they were discovered) up until 2010.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_d-gs0WoUw[/yt]

Toward the end of the clip, the asteroids are differentiated by color. Those crossing Earth's orbit (and thus presenting the possibility of strikes or near-misses) are in red; those which only come near but do not cross Earth's orbit are in yellow; in green are the ones we don't need to worry about meeting at all.

Can also be watched in a larger window and in HD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_d-gs0WoUw

The object getting mention in the OP is one of the least-significant red ones.