[meteorite-list] meteorite near of earth. article

From: fede helle <paseoagustina_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:35 2004
Message-ID: <20020626021920.43975.qmail_at_web13103.mail.yahoo.com>

this article was publish in a newspaper of argentina
yesterday.


A great asteroid passed near the Earth
He/she had the size of a soccer court
   
   
   
   
LONDON (AP). - The last week, an asteroid of the size
of a soccer court happened to less than a third of the
distance that separates the Moon of the Earth. A crash
would have been catastrophic.
.
As he/she gave to know a group of astronomers, the
proximity between the asteroid and our planet was the
biggest registered so far for an object of that size.
"It passed rasping", Brian affirmed Marsden, of the
center Harvard-Smithsonian for the Astrophysics, of
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
.
Grant Stokes, main investigator of the Lincoln Near
Earth Asteroid Research Project whose laboratory in
New Mexico located the object the last week, explained
during a phone conversation that the 2002 -such MN the
provisional name that was awarded - it was traveling
to more than 10 kilometers per second when it was
sighted, and that non colisionó with the Earth for
less than 120.000 kilometers.
.
"If it had happened in a very populated area, the
impact would have caused considerable loss of lives.
The liberated energy would have been of the magnitude
of the one of a he/she arms nuclear big", Stokes
assured.
.
The asteroid was only detected three days after having
at great speed overcome the Earth.
.
It is not of fearing
.
Of little weight, but of a diameter of between 50 and
110 meters, the 2002 MN was the sufficiently big thing
as to cause the devastation type happened in Siberia
in 1908, when an asteroid exploded on the forest of
Tunguska and it squashed a surface of about 1280
square km. It is believed that the damages were caused
by the blasts generated during the approach, since
he/she was not crater some.
.
"If we observe the population's of asteroids
statistics, maybe fifty times per year an asteroid of
around 100 diameter meters it passes at an equivalent
distance to which separates us of the Moon Stokes
he/she -said -. But a handful of these asteroids that
you/they have penetrated the lunar orbit was only
sighted by programs of these travelers' search."
.
At the present time any program that is devoted to
look for objects of the size of the 2002 MN doesn't
exist. The NASA concentrates its efforts on bodies
that overcome the kilometer of diameter, asteroids
with the potential of destroying the civilization just
as we know it", Thomas indicated Morgan, scientific of
the central offices of the NASA in Washington.
.
"He/she is considered that asteroids of the size of
the 2002 MN can hit the Earth once among a hundred and
several hundred of years, causing local damages, but
non disasters for a complete civilization or the
planetary ecosystem -explained to Stokes -. It is
something about what the public should be informed,
but that he should not fear."
. << I begin of the note LONDON (AP). - The last week,
an asteroid of the size of a soccer court happened to
less than a third of the distance that separates the
Moon of the Earth. A crash would have been
catastrophic.
.
As he/she gave to know a group of astronomers, the
proximity between the asteroid and our planet was the
biggest registered so far for an object of that size.
"It passed rasping", Brian affirmed Marsden, of the
center Harvard-Smithsonian for the Astrophysics, of
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
.
Grant Stokes, main investigator of the Lincoln Near
Earth Asteroid Research Project whose laboratory in
New Mexico located the object the last week, explained
during a phone conversation that the 2002 -such MN the
provisional name that was awarded - it was traveling
to more than 10 kilometers per second when it was
sighted, and that non colisionó with the Earth for
less than 120.000 kilometers.
.
"If it had happened in a very populated area, the
impact would have caused considerable loss of lives.
The liberated energy would have been of the magnitude
of the one of a he/she arms nuclear big", Stokes
assured.
.
The asteroid was only detected three days after having
at great speed overcome the Earth.
.
It is not of fearing
.
Of little weight, but of a diameter of between 50 and
110 meters, the 2002 MN was the sufficiently big thing
as to cause the devastation type happened in Siberia
in 1908, when an asteroid exploded on the forest of
Tunguska and it squashed a surface of about 1280
square km. It is believed that the damages were caused
by the blasts generated during the approach, since
he/she was not crater some.
.
"If we observe the population's of asteroids
statistics, maybe fifty times per year an asteroid of
around 100 diameter meters it passes at an equivalent
distance to which separates us of the Moon Stokes
he/she -said -. But a handful of these asteroids that
you/they have penetrated the lunar orbit was only
sighted by programs of these travelers' search."
.
At the present time any program that is devoted to
look for objects of the size of the 2002 MN doesn't
exist. The NASA concentrates its efforts on bodies
that overcome the kilometer of diameter, asteroids
with the potential of destroying the civilization just
as we know it", Thomas indicated Morgan, scientific of
the central offices of the NASA in Washington.
.
"He/she is considered that asteroids of the size of
the 2002 MN can hit the Earth once among a hundred and
several hundred of years, causing local damages, but
non disasters for a complete civilization or the
planetary ecosystem -explained to Stokes -. It is
something



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Received on Tue 25 Jun 2002 10:19:20 PM PDT