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Very 'Close Flyby' of 30 Meters Asteroid - October 12


Monroe

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Size is estimated between 10 and 30 meters ... myself, not exactly sure how large 30 meters might be ... found this example from China of a 30 meter bus that carries 256 passengers.

World's Longest Bus is 30 Meters Long and Carries 256 Passengers

http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/world-s-longest-bus-is-30-meters-long-and-carries-256-passengers.html

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30-metre Asteroid Skimming Past Earth in October Will Test Nasa's Doomsday 'Planetary Defence System'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4746010/Nasa-test-defence-asteroid-skims-past-Earth.html

Asteroid 2012 TC4 will pass 4,200 miles from Earth on October 12

Nasa is using the flyby to test its asteroid detection and tracking network

As it starts to approach Earth, telescopes will establish its precise trajectory

The observations are expected to help refine knowledge about its orbit

By Shivali Best - Mailonline

31 July 2017

On October 12, a 30-metre asteroid is set to make a 'close' flyby of Earth.

The asteroid, named 2012 TC4, will pass just 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometres) from Earth for the first time since it went out of range in 2012.

Nasa is using this opportunity to test it's 'planetary defence system' put in place to protect Earth from a doomsday asteroid threat.

Asteroid 2012 TC4 is estimated to be between 10 and 30 metres in size.

Michael Kelley, a scientist working on the Nasa TC4 observation campaign, said: 'Scientists have always appreciated knowing when an asteroid will make a close approach to and safely pass the Earth because they can make preparations to collect data to characterise and learn as much as possible about it.

'This time we are adding in another layer of effort, using this asteroid flyby to test the worldwide asteroid detection and tracking network, assessing our capability to work together in response to finding a potential real asteroid threat.'

Nasa hopes to use its international network of observatories to recover, track and characterise 2012 TC4.

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Edited by monroe
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My thoughts are ... if (and it's a very big if) I owned a huge amount of acreage and was lucky enough to have the asteroid land (crash) on my property, it would belong to me ... right ? ... providing I survive the impact.

Finders - keepers and all that stuff ... then I could claim 'mineral rights' ... I'd be smoking those big fat $50 cigars, but I don't smoke.

Asteroids can have real value ...

Single asteroid worth £60 trillion if it was mined – as much as world earns in a year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2147404/Found-The-single-asteroid-thats-worth-60-billion-years-financial-output-entire-WORLD.html

One single asteroid in our solar system - 241 Germania - has $95.8 (£60) trillion of mineral wealth inside it - nearly the same as the annual GDP of the entire WORLD.

The finding comes in the wake of the founding of Planetary Resources, a venture backed by Avatar director James Cameron, which aims to mine asteroids for their wealth.

Asterank is based on publicly available information - and aims to catalogue the enormous wealth in the solar system, and also how little is currently known about what lies out there.

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