Close Calls

Whew! That was close!

Looks like Earth narrowly avoided tragedy this week as a rocky chunk squeeked by our planet. Supposedly about 35 meters in diameter,  it passed over the Pacific at its closest encounter. Apparently astronomers only detected this beastie only 3 days before its passage. Some scientists have claimed this was the size of the object that detonated above Siberia in 1908 causing massive devastation to the Tunguska forest. Speculation that, I say, as we have no evidence of what that was... Needless to say, though, (and I'll say it!) if this thing HAD hit a populated area there could have been terrific destruction.  I''ll pass. Oh wait, it did... ; )

NOW I've checked spaceweather.com and it seems another rock goes by the Earth tomorrow (Mar. 6th)! Smaller, this one, at about 25 meters. Farther away, too. it will pass by at about 0.9 Lunar distance (lunar distance = 240,000 miles). Still, that's pretty close as far as NEO's go (Near Earth Object).

Somebody out there got closer with their aim...