The nerd returns with a short, low-res video of a 3-mile-long asteroid caught on tape by NASA passing by the Earth a week ago. The asteroid, Toutatis, was only 4.3 million miles away from us at its closest point. But fret not, dear readers, it will not hit us. Toutatis will make its way around the sun before swinging by our neighborhood again in 2069, when it will be only 1.8 million miles away from the Earth. A little too close for comfort for some, but it won’t hit us then either. In fact, NASA assures us that for the next 4 centuries, the possibility of it hitting us is zero. After that the math gets a little fuzzy, and scientists are wise to not proclaim what they cannot prove.
If this asteroid were to hit the Earth though, or one similar in size to Toutatis — well — ask the dinosaurs how that turned out for them. Luckily for us, NASA maintains an entire program called, Near Earth Object (NEO), that is dedicated to watching the sky, tracking potential threats, and basically covering everyone’s ass… just in case. If you want to know the next time we’ll have a close encounter of the potential extinction kind, then check out their site, where you’ll find hordes of information and charts. Until the next cosmic event, so long and thanks for all the fish.
Written by Matia Guardabascio.↓
Matia Guardabascio (n.): editor at large; a spirited, Boston hooligan with the flair of a poet, and the soul of a wise sage.
Matia Guardabascio is a proud citizen of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in both English and French Literature. As the daughter of a musician and a school teacher, Matia grew up in a musical household with parents who made a concerted effort to instill in her the value and importance of the arts. She is a music enthusiast, an avid reader, a writer of prose and poetry, a traveler, and an enthusiastic imbiber of red wine. The piano is her favorite instrument, followed by the drums, and she loves Impressionist artwork, especially because she doesn’t need to wear her glasses to see what’s going on. That’s right, the glasses are not for show. She wears tri-focals because she reads too much, or as her good friends might say, she actually 80-years-old.