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Earth escapes close encounter with asteroid
THE Earth has survived a close encounter with a chunk of space rock travelling at more than 29,000 miles per hour.
The cosmic close-call happened on Tuesday when the asteroid, named 2008-TC3 by Nasa, drifted within a mere 7,600 miles (12,200km) of the planet.
It was predicted to enter the Earth's atmosphere above Northern Sudan, Africa, at approximately 01:46 UTC, though not expected to survive.
Pilots of a KLM flight around 750 miles away reported an aerial flash around the time the asteroid was expected.
It is not yet known whether the object skipped off the atmosphere and back out into space, or burned up.
Approaches by so-called Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are usually measured in lunar distances, equivalent to around 384,000 kilometres, which is the average between the Earth and the Moon.
Most float harmlessly past our planet at ranges far greater than 1LD, with recently observed NEO's tracking at anything from 5 to 65LD (1.92million km to 24.9million km).
By comparison, 2008-TC3 came within 0.02LD.
Despite being only five metres across, the asteroid could have caused huge damage had it hit the ground.
Travelling at around eight miles per second it would have packed a punch equivalent to one or more nuclear bombs going off.
The size of the crater, however, would depend on the composition of the meteorite and the ground it struck.
One indicator of the devastating power of impacts can be seen in the Barringer Crater, otherwise known as Meteor Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States.
The asteroid responsible is estimated to have been 50m across - 10 times the size of 2008-TC3 - and exploded with the force of 150 atom bombs.
It left a crater about 1,200m (4,000ft) in diameter, around 170m deep (570ft), which is surrounded by a rim that rises 45m (150ft) above the surrounding plains.
One final note.
The next 50m object is due to pass within 7LD of Earth .... tomorrow (Friday).
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Weather for Northumberland
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
