Halloween Asteroid

NASA discovered an asteroid, probably with a diameter bigger than the height of the Empire State Building, ten days ago. And it is going to whiz by the Earth on Halloween. It will pass by at a distance about 30% further away than the Moon.

The last such close approach of an asteroid was a smaller one in 2006 which passed by about 10% further away than the Moon.

NASA says there is no need for alarm. They've been looking out for asteroids for quite a while now, . . . and the next large asteroid to pass close by isn't until the year 2029. It has a name, Apophis . And it's about the same size as the one that'll pass by on Halloween. But it's expected to pass by at about one-tenth the distance to the Moon.

So DonDiego counsels everyone not to worry too; . . . but one might notice that they didn't even know the Halloween asteroid existed until 10 days ago.

Sweet dreams.

I saw that article, I was surprised NASA didn't know about it until so late. If it was due ti hit, I'd sure appreciate more than ten days in advance.

The average distance to the moon is, what, roughly 240,000 miles? So this thing won’t get any nearer than 300,000 miles or so. Meh.

The lamp Hillary hurled at Bill whizzed by a lot closer than that.

Maybe it's Alice Kramden whizzing by, "to the moon Alice!", Ralph finally did it? Har-har-hardy-har-har.

Yes,this one sneaked into our solar system.
It's in a weird orbit around our sun. In the parts of space we seldom search.
https://www.popsci.com/how-did-halloween-asteroid-sneak-up-on-us
Not sure if I'll be alive to see the next one in 14 years.