Joe

Nice one! I didn't miss it, it missed me :-)

"they seek a standardized way of alerting the public to the hazard they
might pose."

Fat lot of good that would do, knowing that a slice of the earth the
size of Texas or France would disappear. If you are in the target area,
you'd have a zero chance at survival and if you're not, so much the
better for you: you'd last a few days before you froze to death. Also,
I'm pretty sure that the prediction of where it would hit would not give
you enough time to get out the way. There's a helluva difference between
predicting that the orbits are on a collision course and being able to
calculate the hundreds of parameters involved in finding ground zero,
not the least of which is the aerodynamics of an irregular shape
breaking up as it reaches the upper atmosphere.

Brian
Joseph Fjelstad wrote:
>
> Tuesday January 8 2:06 PM ET
>
> Immense Asteroid Passes Earth
>
> LOS ANGELES (AP) - An asteroid large enough to wipe out France hurtled
> past the Earth at a distance of a half-million miles just days after
> scientists spotted it. The asteroid, dubbed 2001 YB5, came within
> 520,000 miles of Earth on Monday, approximately twice the distance of
> the moon. Dozens of asteroids pass close by the Earth each year,
> though 2001 YB5 was closer than most. On Friday, for instance, an
> asteroid known as 2001 UU92 will pass with 11 million miles of Earth.
> Asteroid 2001 YB5, estimated to be 1,000 feet across, was traveling
> about 68,000 mph relative to the Earth when it zipped past. ``It's a
> fairly substantial rock. If it had hit us at that sort of speed, you
> would be taking out a medium-size country, France, I suppose, or
> Texas, or something of that order,'' said Jay Tate, director of the
> Spaceguard Centre in Wales. Astronomers with the NASA (news - web
> sites)'s Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program discovered 2001 YB5 on
> Dec. 26. Soon after, astronomers calculated the asteroid's orbit and
> determined there was no danger it would strike Earth. As astronomers
> discover more and more near-Earth asteroids, they seek a standardized
> way of alerting the public to the hazard they might pose. Among
> programs already in place is the Spaceguard Centre's Comet and
> Asteroid Information Network, which began work Jan. 1. - On the Net:
> http://www.spaceguarduk.com