2009 BD- Scary Asteroid Space Stalker

Don't look now, but we're being followed.  You can't miss him - he's ten meters tall, made of rock, and goes by the snappy name of 2009 BD.  Oh, and he's hanging six hundred thousand kilometers above your head.

This might sound like a scary Stone of Damocles but you can let Bruce Willis sleep in - it's much more of an oddity than a threat. 2009 BD was spotted earlier this year (no points for having worked that out), trailing Earth in almost the same orbit and at most a tenth of an Astronomical Unit away.  Since we're only 1 AU from the Sun, and that's a fair sight bigger, we should be fine.  There's absolutely no chance of the thing actually hitting us since even if it comes closer it'll be on course for a gravitational slingshot away again.  For now its odd little orbit, swinging round the sun while under Earth's influence as well, is a useful astronomical study for scientists.

Our new buddy BD is a great cross-over between science and philosophy.  We're studying it because it's interesting, and it's interesting entirely and only because it's close to us.  The solar system has millions of rocks floating around the place, it's just that this one understands "location location location", moving downtown to the only place with some nightlife.  Or day life, come to that.

Of course, we at the Daily Galaxy know better.  It's a small signal coming close to an inhabited area, and the experts have dismissed it as no threat.  So the only question is whether it contains evil alien eggs, a probe from an evil empire, or some kind of frozen Kryptonian killer. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, just be ready to collect and spend your winnings really quickly.

Luke McKinney.

Stalking Stone

Comments

[flflake]

I say we send a rocket out to it and find out what it is! 8:)

[Claudio]

The article is kidding with the 10m meteorid.
It was known since many years ago.

It will be above us at a distance of less than 1 lunar distance in a while....(the article is fanny when it talks distances...they better look at some NASA and JPL sites...).

It was thought to have a course of collision with Earth at some time around 2029...and likely it is so.

Tunguska meteorid was kind of 50m in diametre.

The one that made the large crater in Arizona was 100m diametre.

The angle of arrival of 2009 DB if it will ever arrive to collide with earth is such that deviation from atmosphere is inferable...Or at the worst it will have the same effect (less than ) of Tunguska meteorid.

Correct there are NOT many worry about this large 'stone'...however there are other much larger guys that are rather big and are 'earth orbit crossers'....they are called PHA (potentially hazard asteroids)

This means that in some remote future time the planet earth will be hit by one of these big orbit crossers...then the jokes and kidding will be at an end........kind of 'Armaggedon times' will come.

Regards