Super Asteroid Nearly Smacks Into Earth

This past Monday, March 1st, an asteroid whizzed by Earth, flying between the Earth and the moon, just 66,000 km away from us. It was at least 65 feet wide (possibly more than double that), and was travelling 12 miles per second. Now that’s hardly an extinction level event, but it sure would hurt. One of those lands on a small town and we’ll start to remember to respect that which falls from the sky.

Here’s the full article.

Crack in Earth’s Magnetic Shield: Solar Storms On The Way

Ok - there’s good news and bad news. I always start with bad news.

The bad news is that the presence of large amounts of solar particles near the Earth’s magnetic field show that the shield that normally keeps these particles out isn’t in good shape. We’re in the low point of the solar cycle at this point, but when it picks up around 2012, we can expect this solar issue to “interfere with satellites’ power sources, endanger spacewalkers, and even knock out power grids on Earth.”

The good news is, the cool ass colors in the aurora found at the Earth’s poles will be magnified and intensified as solar activity increases.

Full story here.

Asteroid Ingredients

Know your enemy!

If an asteroid was on course to hit Earth, one of the best things to know, apparently, would be its composition. The strategy for dealing with it can change depending on what it’s made of. My guess is that it comes down to just how solid and strong it is, and thus how severe the measures taken have to be.

There’s an asteroid that’s a current candidate for Earth smashing, called Apophis. A roughly 0.00002% chance for a hit. In that unlikely event of a coming collision, we actually know what this one’s made of, based on meteorites similar to it that have already hit Earth. All to say, probably a false alarm. Then again, someone won the lottery today, and they had worse odds.

Read some more about it here.