Is is a Bird? Is it a Plane? NO! LOOK OUT it's an ASTEROID!

Next week, a half-kilometre chunk of rock is going to provide a show for amateur and professional astronomers alike. NASA reckons the asteroid 2004 BL86 flyby, at just three times the Earth-Moon distance, will be the nearest pass by any known object for quite some time to come. The next asteroid to pass similarly close will be …

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah!

Having shivered my butt off too many times in hope of a meteor display to rival the great shower of 1833 and generally been rewarded with "several per hour!" or "observers in clear sky locations had multiple orgasms" (then went blind...), now I refuse to get out of bed for anything that I can't see through the front door spyhole (of my basement flat...)

(to be fair one Perseid shower did have a dawn fireball with a visible smoke trail but my idea of a meteor radiant is roughly what Han Solo sees when jumping to light speed)

[John Brown (no body)]

Thanks...

...for the advanced weather forecast. Now I know it will be cloudy, probably raining, possibly snowing on that date.

[Mark 85]

Re: Thanks...

All the above and serious fog to boot....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Thanks...

Bigfoot to bog?

It's early in the morning...

[I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects]

What was I going to say?

I read the other people's comments and... errmm.. something about.. errrmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I right in assuming that...

...when they bombard it with microwaves, it'll cook it so it glows, cause Humanity to go blind, and make man-eating plants uproot themselves to go looking for blind midnight snacks on two legs?

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Am I right in assuming that...

No. When they Microwave it, it'll wake up. Then start firing it's death-rays in retaliation.

[Peb]

Re: Am I right in assuming that...

I was hoping for an asteroid that would turn everyone in L.A to dust, except two hot valley girls

[Afernie]

Re: Am I right in assuming that...

Is one the small blonde bubbly one nobody remembers, and the other Catherine Mary Stewart, by any chance? Showing my age and my fondness for cheese here.

[Little Mouse]

Re: Am I right in assuming that...

Cheese, yes. But damn fine cheese.

[frank ly]

Frikin' lasers

That's what they need to bombard it with, so we can see it when it goes past.

[FunkyEric]

Re: Frikin' lasers

How are you going to get the sharks onto the asteroid?

[Anonymous Coward]

I say we send up Bruce Willis and a drilling team with nukes

Or nuke it from orbit -it's the only way to be sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Microwave

But how will we know when it's done?

[Alvar]

Re: Microwave

It'll go 'DING' of course

[Mister_C]

Re: Microwave

In space nobody can hear you go "ding"

[Paul Herber]

ding-dong

If it goes DING and then DONG the asteroid will have to be renamed Leslie Philips.Then we'll discover that it's not an asteroid at all but a defunct computer (Hactar).

[Anonymous Coward]

I think there is something missing from your NASA quotes - rocks 'n' stuff pass us much closer than this all the time ( one last week was ~ 100K miles away; it was much smaller though ).

[Ogi]

0300 EST eh?

So, 2000 GMT?

While I would imagine that the UK weather will do what it does best, at least thanks to the net we can now observe it somewhere where you can actually see without the clouds, smog and light pollution.

[Tromos]

The asteroid is frozen...

..so I hope they remember to microwave accordingly, breaking off half way to give the contents a good stir...

[Martin Budden]

Frozen? in that case...

let it go, let it go

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Frozen? in that case...

have a beer it dizney do harm