Earth Has Near Miss With Asteroid on March 2nd 2009
Do you know where you were, or what you were doing on March 2nd 2009 around 5:44 AM PST or 8:44 EST. Most of us were either getting up or on our way to work that morning just as we do everyday.
However, most people are unaware that a small Asteroid measuring approximately 100 feet (30 meters) across passed within 63,500 km or 39,457 miles of the planet earth at this time. This distance is about 1/5th the distance to the Moon to put into perspective for you.
The Asteroid known as 2009 DD45 though small is roughly the same size ar the one that is suspected to have landed in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908, commonly referred to as the "Tunguska Event" which destroyed 800 square miles of forest in the area.
Even though this event would not have caused a mass extinction event, if this Asteroid were to have hit Earth, it would have had the same impact as a nuclear weapon, and would have probably destroyed a major city if had hit one.
Scientists have been searching space to find Near Earth Objects that might hit us, however this one was not found until February 27th which would not have been enough time to take action should it have been on course to hit us.
Animations of the event below:
Actual View of 2009 DD45 passing Earth:
On April 13th in 2029 an Asteroid known as 99942 Apophis will pass within 20,000 miles of Earth, closer than communications satellite. Apophis is about 885 square feet in size and is expected to return seven years later again on April 13th 2036 and may strike the planet.
Asteroid, NEO, Near Earth Object, Near Miss, disaster, impact, space, space object in Asteroid Permalink 
Reader Comments (2)
Keith:
This subject is one we astronauts and cosmonauts have been working on for the past several years... and "introducing" to the disaster management community in the process. I refer your readers to our overall report, and specifically to the case of a late discovered mipactor and how to deal with it. This is specifically dealt with in Appendix II #4. Low Probability Mitigation Alerts of our report, Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response, which can be found on the ASE website at http://www.space-explorers.org/committees/NEO/docs/ATACGR.pdf. Some of your readers might be interested.
Rusty Schweickart
Chairman, ASE-NEO Committee
Rusty,
Thanks for the comment and the excellent resource. I know that many of my readers will be interested in this.
Thanks,
Keith