Newly Discovered Asteroid To Pass by Earth Tomorrow

A newly spotted 70+ foot wide asteroid will pass the earth tomorrow getting at one point closer to us then the moon is. It is not expected hit us, but it should serve as a stark reminder that their are a lot of surprises still out there. It is good that we spotted it, but a few days notice is likely insufficient time to divert a potentially cataclysmic collision. When it comes to our efforts to map all of the closer earth asteroids; to paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, 'faster, please'.

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/04/06/newly-discovered-asteroid-will-pass-by-earth-april-8

"Good to know the Spaceguard teams are keeping an eye out for us. The eagle-eyed observers at the Catalina Sky Survey have spotted an asteroid which will pass relatively close to Earth this Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 23:06 U.T.C. (4:06 p.m. PDT, 7:06 pm EDT). But it should pose no problem, as at the time of closest approach asteroid 2010 GA6 will be about 359,000 kilometers (223,000 miles) away from Earth – about 9/10ths the distance from to the moon. The asteroid is approximately 22 meters (71 feet) wide.

"Fly bys of near-Earth objects within the moon's orbit occur every few weeks," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

This one, however, is a bit bigger than other recent asteroid alerts NASA's Near Earth Observation program has issued. In November 2009, a 7-meter asteroid called 2009 VA came within 14,000 km (8,700 miles) of Earth and in January, 2010 AL30 was about 10-15 meters long and came within only 128,000 km (about 80,000 miles)."