On Saturday, June 2, a NASA-funded project to spot dangerous asteroids and warn us of imminent destruction (so I guess everybody can go out for one last fancy dinner, or confess undying love to someone you've never talked to, or have sex for an entire last night of revelry) spotted an asteroid that was absolutely definitely on a collision course with Earth.
YIKES. I've got to make a couple of phone calls.
But wait - not to worry, this asteroid turnedd out not to be a planet-smasher, but rather a boulder destined to be a big bright flash in the sky. It was only about 2 meters in diameter. So, expecting that this would not constitute a problem, NASA just said it was going to hit somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, in the vicinity of Africa, the Indian Ocean, and maybe as far over as Australia and New Guinea.
Africa turned out to be the lucky continent, and the incoming rock was spotted blazing out of existence in incandescent glory by a security camera on a farm on Saturday night. The video of that immolation is in the article linked below, and I screen-grabbed a frame.
Tiny asteroid discovered Saturday disintegrates* over Africa
* I would have preferred "flames out" instead of "disintegrates"
Next time it might be bigger. And louder. And brighter.
And more dangerous.
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| "There it is! Over the barn!" |
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