Giant Near Earth Asteroid Flyby - Live Video 9pm ET USA Monday 2/17 !

[mellenORL]

An asteroid the size of three football fields will sling just past the Earth today. It's being tracked, with live video imagery of this humongous, mass extinction event-sized object as it whips past. Nerdgasm tonight! Here's an article with many juicy linkies in it.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/huge-asteroid-fly-safely-earth-monday-watch-it-live-n32051

Near-Earth asteroid 2000 EM26 poses no threat of actually hitting the planet, but the online Slooh Space Camera will track the asteroid as it passes by Earth on Monday. The live Slooh webcast will start at 9 p.m. ET (0200 Feb. 18 GMT), and you can also watch the webcast directly through the Slooh website. (You can participate in the broadcast by using the hashtag #asteroid to ask questions during the 2000 EM26 show.)

You can also watch the asteroid broadcast live on Space.com. Scientists estimate that 2000 EM26 is about 885 feet (270 meters) in diameter, and it is whizzing through the solar system at a break-neck 27,000 mph (12.37km/s), according to Slooh. During its closest approach, the asteroid will fly about 8.8 lunar distances from Earth. [See photos of potentially dangerous asteroids]

Yay! Here's the live feed on standby at YouTube;

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFWUemLzM0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFWUemLzM0</a>

And here's a SLOOH event time/day converter for finding your local viewing time;
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Near-Earth+Asteroid+2000+EM26+-+Slooh+Live+Event&iso=20140218T02&am=30

[Ultimate Paragon]

I'll be watching.

[Flying Mint Bunny!]

Whenever asteroids come close to earth I always get a bit paranoid and worry that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it's actually going to hit earth and kill us all.

[Vypernight]

Whenever asteroids come close to earth I always get a bit paranoid and worry that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it's actually going to hit earth and kill us all.

Look at the bright side.  You'd probably only feel excrutiating pain for only a few seconds.

[Flying Mint Bunny!]

Whenever asteroids come close to earth I always get a bit paranoid and worry that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it's actually going to hit earth and kill us all.

Look at the bright side.  You'd probably only feel excrutiating pain for only a few seconds.

I'll actually be asleep, because it will be 2am where I am.

So, i'd probably die without even waking up.

[Random Gal]

Whenever asteroids come close to earth I always get a bit paranoid and worry that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it's actually going to hit earth and kill us all.

Look at the bright side.  You'd probably only feel excrutiating pain for only a few seconds.

Only if you're right at the impact site. Otherwise, the next few centuries are going to really suck with all the aftereffects of the impact. Possible firestorms, dust cloud-induced nuclear winter, food shortages from mass crop dieoff (insufficient sunlight), possible wars over whatever is left of civilization...

Yeah, not really such a quick death after all.

[Ultimate Paragon]

Of course, you always have the option to commit suicide.

[Ghoti]

Whenever asteroids come close to earth I always get a bit paranoid and worry that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it's actually going to hit earth and kill us all.

Look at the bright side.  You'd probably only feel excrutiating pain for only a few seconds.

Only if you're right at the impact site. Otherwise, the next few centuries are going to really suck with all the aftereffects of the impact. Possible firestorms, dust cloud-induced nuclear winter, food shortages from mass crop dieoff (insufficient sunlight), possible wars over whatever is left of civilization...

Yeah, not really such a quick death after all.

Fallout derail in 3... 2... 1...

[mellenORL]

Hehe. Fallout. I wonder if they're prayin' for it to hit over at RR?

[Art Vandelay]

Figures that my internet would decide to slow down to a crawl now of all times.

[Vypernight]

Whenever asteroids come close to earth I always get a bit paranoid and worry that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it's actually going to hit earth and kill us all.

Look at the bright side.  You'd probably only feel excrutiating pain for only a few seconds.

Only if you're right at the impact site. Otherwise, the next few centuries are going to really suck with all the aftereffects of the impact. Possible firestorms, dust cloud-induced nuclear winter, food shortages from mass crop dieoff (insufficient sunlight), possible wars over whatever is left of civilization...

Yeah, not really such a quick death after all.

Fallout derail in 3... 2... 1...

Great, giant scorpions.  If that thing was to hit, I'd move where it'd strike first.

[Ironchew]

Hate to nitpick, but 270 meters across isn't a "giant" asteroid. Bigger than most motes of dust out there, sure, but it doesn't compare to the largest known asteroids which are several hundred kilometers in diameter.

I ran the numbers through the Earth Impact Effects Program, assuming a head-on impact with Earth sometime in the distant future. The crater would be large-ish at 6.7 km, but it wouldn't be anything catastrophic. I would guess that the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens gave people a harder time.

[Random Gal]

Hate to nitpick, but 270 meters across isn't a "giant" asteroid. Bigger than most motes of dust out there, sure, but it doesn't compare to the largest known asteroids which are several hundred kilometers in diameter.

I ran the numbers through the Earth Impact Effects Program, assuming a head-on impact with Earth sometime in the distant future. The crater would be large-ish at 6.7 km, but it wouldn't be anything catastrophic. I would guess that the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens gave people a harder time.

True. The K/T impact (which was the basis of my previous post here) was caused by a six mile (9.7 km) wide object, much larger than this one.