Quote Originally Posted by Chauncey View Post
Will you be keeping an eye on that asteroid (2023 BU) that's heading over South America this weekend?

At just 22,000 miles above us it seems a bit close to me,what if the calculations are out and it hits us,something the size of a minibus hitting Earth can cause some damage if you ask me and how come it wasn't noticed until last weekend, surely it should have been spotted before now?
Indeed Chalky I am somewhat surprised that it was not noticed until last week-end, particularly because at least in America there are several different organisations monitoring the risk of an asteroid of significant size hitting the Earth. NASA is constantly doing this.

This asteroid was eventually spotted by a complete amateur.

Human beings are here today only because the dinosaurs who had been ruling the Earth for 250 million years were wiped out by the results of an asteroid impact. It impacted in shallow sea water near to land and it spread debris over land, sea and most v­itally as far as the atmosphere, causing darkness for years. No vegetation could grow, only very small animals were able to survive. When the atmosphere cleared a new evolution began and that is why we are here. If the asteroid had not hit it is quite possible that the dinosaurs would still be ruling the Earth much as then. The hit was 65 million years ago.

Nothing could argue with a dinosaur, it could simply put its foot down.

The Yanks, especially NASA should be well embarrassed by the fact that they did not spot the current asteroid and that an amateur did spot it.