@BreakingScience No, 2005 YU55 wont destroy the #Earth

No, 2005 YU55 wont destroy the Earth | Bad Astronomy http://t.co/w3Fh5PB via @BreakingScience


http://discovermagazine.com/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy

blogs.discovermagazine — On November 8th of this year, the 400-meter-wide asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass the Earth, missing us by the comfortable margin of 325,000 kilometers (200,000 miles). While this is the largest asteroid (that we know of) to swing past us for the next 17 years or so, YU55 is not...

While this is the largest asteroid (that we know of) to swing past us for the next 17 years or so, YU55 is not an immediate threat to Earth. Its orbit does bring it close enough to our planet that it’s been deemed a potentially hazardous asteroid, but the orbit is well-enough known that we can rule out an impact for at least the next century. That’s long enough for me personally to not be concerned.

I’ve seen some small amount of buzz on the usual conspiracy sites about this asteroid, and I do see some folks trying to play this up a bit (search on "YU55 doomsday" for example), but fear-mongering chatter is surprisingly low for this event. I expect that by this fall you’ll be seeing breathless YouTube videos accusing NASA of covering up a imminent impact — and I don’t say this blithely; it’s happened before. Remember asteroid 2007 TU24? No? That’s because nothing happened, despite the claims of panic-promoters.