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Asteroid 2011 MD Whizzes by Earth
Posted on Jun 27, 2011 05:17:48 PM | William Cooke | 4 Comments    |


Discovered only a few days ago, the house-sized asteroid 2011 MD whizzed by at only 7,600 miles above Earth's surface on June 27 at approximately 1:00 p.m. EDT. This approximately 10-yard rock came closer than many communications satellites and will rapidly recede over the next few hours and days. Rob Suggs, operating a Marshall Space Flight Center telescope in New Mexico, captured several images of the asteroid on the night of  June 26.


At the time these 30-second exposures were made, the asteroid was about 80,000 miles away from Earth. At such a close distance, the asteroid appears as a streak due to its motion relative to us, even in a short exposure.

 

Image courtesy of Rob Suggs, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

 

Tags : Asteroid 2011, Bill Cooke, Marshall Space Flight Center, astronomy, rob suggs  

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4 Comments so far ( Post your own )
4 On Jun 29, 2011 10:52:22 PM  Gothi Michael Lush D.D.  added a comment on your blog post. 

Amazing, I love science. I'm not a fan of conspiracy therorist and numb skulls though.

3 On Jun 29, 2011 05:08:18 PM  Filipe Silva  added a comment on your blog post. 

Why can't you put a solar powered radar orbiting earth, to find all potential asteroids that could enter in a colision course with us?

2 On Jun 28, 2011 07:26:57 AM  jumpjack  added a comment on your blog post. 

Why did it "flash"?

1 On Jun 28, 2011 01:00:55 AM  Jeevan  added a comment on your blog post. 

If we could detect an asteroid coming towards earth before few days time, then how can we be sure that if anything else - say planet X or something similar - comes. How can we be sure that we will detect anything before it is too late? Why did NASA denied its own discovery of an outer celestial body beyond Pluto in 1984? Is there any real need to hide it? Or is it done just so that people keep guessing about a non-existent thing & don't interfere in the real goals or platforms. If that is the case then I salute you for the biggest magic trick. The magician makes an Elephant, A Building or Anything huge disappear, you made the whole planet

Thanks
Jeevan Kairon

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