back to article Truck-size asteroid makes one of the tightest fly-bys of Earth ever recorded

A box-truck-sized asteroid has made one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded, brushing past our home world at a distance of a couple of thousand miles on Thursday.  Codenamed 2023 BU, the space rock is estimated to be between 11.5 and 28 feet (3.5 to 8.5 metres) across. Although it's fairly sizable, …

  1. lglethal Silver badge
    Coat

    Space truckin', Space truckin' Space trucking 'cross the Milky Way....

    1. KittenHuffer Silver badge

      I think that the Musky one may have built a Cybertruck and launched it into space after the Tesla that was previously launched, but it came back for a gravity slingshot!

      It would be about the right size!

  2. Wellyboot Silver badge

    Hmm

    >>>most of the asteroid would burn up in our atmosphere<<<

    That's a statement I'd only be happy making when I've seen a mass estimate for this lump. All I've seen so far is the 'size' between 3.5 & 8.5 metres which does give quite a potential range depending on the asteroids composition.

  3. RockBurner

    Box-truck?

    How does that fit into the Register's universal standards?

    1. Douchus McBagg

      hmmm. i think that translates from American to British as 1x Bedford Luton?

      a step up from a transit, but not as far as a 7.5tonner

      1. Mast1

        Yes but.....

        To the UK-based cognoscenti, there is a sub-division in weight for the Luton box van aspiring to become a Reg standard.

        Road legal, you can have it in at least 2 flavours, 3.5 tonne, or 5.5 tonne load limit.

        Lightweight & heavy weight ?

    2. Winkypop Silver badge

      Elephant

      In Oz, this was reported as “elephant size”.

      That’s more in keeping with the Reg standard.

      1. Antron Argaiv Silver badge

        Re: Elephant

        ...and a more familiar animal to Australians

    3. Antony Shepherd

      A flying winnebago?

      Anyway, shame a bit did'nt split off and hit Chequers.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A box-truck-sized asteroid

    aka 'a small bus' (in beeb glossary), as documented here:

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64411469

    1. Sceptic Tank Silver badge

      Re: A box-truck-sized asteroid

      ISA or PCI bus?

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

        Re: A box-truck-sized asteroid

        ISA or PCI bus?

        I²C and SPI are both much smaller. 1-wire for the really minimalist.

      2. jake Silver badge

        Re: A box-truck-sized asteroid

        It's probably over 4.5 billion years old, so Shirley that should be "S-100, Unibus, Q-bus or Benton Harbor?".

        Yes, "Harbor" not Harbo(u)r ... it's named after the city in Michigan.

      3. that one in the corner Silver badge

        Re: A box-truck-sized asteroid

        Micro-channel: it will safely pass us by without making any impact and can be ignored by everyone.

        1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

          Re: A box-truck-sized asteroid

          You'd definitely know it if a PS/2 Model 95 fell on a foot or your head

  5. Lars
    Coat

    Emitting no light of their own

    I suppose that should have been rather "reflecting no light" ?.

    1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

      Re: Emitting no light of their own

      I suppose that should have been rather "reflecting no light" ?.

      To be fair, they don't emit light of their own either.

      1. The commentard formerly known as Mister_C Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: Emitting no light of their own

        So it was a box-truck sized asteroid, barrelling through the night with its lights off? Needs to be pulled over and given a ticket

  6. ThatOne Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Wishful thinking... :-/

    On one hand you hear people making big plans about deflecting or destroying asteroids which might crash into us, on the other hand you see that the average time between discovery and collision/flyby is usually measured in weeks if not days...

    Somehow those two don't fit together. If some astronomer manages to detect (despite the cloud of Internet satellites) a killer asteroid coming for us, we won't even have the time to plan a meeting to chose the committee which will oversee the project...

    1. Francis Boyle

      Fortunately,

      this was just a tiddler, relatively speaking. There are plenty of rocks out there whose orbit's are well known because they are bigger and easier to see. Those are the ones we need to keep an eye on just in case, one day, we discover one of them is heading our way.

      1. Angry Dad

        Re: Fortunately,

        Why am I suddenly reminded Donald Rumsfeld?

        Ah yes, watch out for those pesky "unknown unknowns"

        1. Colin Bain

          Re: Fortunately,

          I'm reminded of Dan Quayle who was ridiculed for even tinking about this ...

          1. Doctor Evil

            Re: Fortunately,

            Dan Quayle? Really? I wouldn't have thought him capable of thinking. Golfing, yes, but thinking? Rationally? And coherently?

    2. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: Wishful thinking... :-/

      If it helps, US Space Command has plans for a lunar base to monitor for space disasters, as well as some Lagrange point monitoring stations to try and do a better job of finding crap that might hit. Their goal is to have everything within the lunar orbit under observation. If/when this is achieved we should have the ability to control that space and prevent anything from taking a crack at the planet. Ambitious, and probably years if not decades jnto the future though.

      And yes, if the US gets control of everything within the lunar orbit, that means control over everything. As a USAian, I have mixed feelings about this. Better us than certain other nations, but not by enough. I'm just glad the most that might happen before I go on that final journey into the great beyond is the beginning of a lunar base.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Wishful thinking... :-/

        "US Space Command has plans"

        So the fuck what? They'll never get funding for all that ... but I'm absolutely certain they'll waste as many of my tax dollars on the boondoggle as they possibly can.

        Yes, I vote. And talk with my elected officials about how and why I vote. Do you?

  7. Bitsminer Silver badge

    Borisov

    The man is amazing.

    He finds comets, publishes amazing astronomical photographs, builds his own telescopes.

  8. Dr Paul Taylor

    Southern tip of South America

    OK it's called Fin del Mundo, so most of the Mundo doesn't care, and usually nor would I.

    But I just happen to be there at the moment.

    But could I find anything anywhere in either English or Spanish telling me where over the "southern tip of South America" it would pass, so that I could look out for it or the crash?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Southern tip of South America

      Standing at the southern tip, I think the direction would have been "Up"... :-)

      More seriously, there was a lovely pizza spot in Ushuaia when I visited, but that was 18 years ago. East of the town, not far from the airport, if I remember correctly. Some of the pizza toppings were, er, different, but they tasted really good, and made a nice change from big slabs of meat, which seemed to be the usual food available in restaurants in Argentina.

      1. Atomic Duetto

        Re: Southern tip of South America

        Twenty years for me, wore shorts all the way down from Quito just until Ushuaia… spectacular spot, stupid cold.

    2. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

      Asteroid approaches the end of the world

      A few missed headline opportunties there - "Asteroid approaches the end of the world" would have pulled in a few more eyeballs (sadly even in the Argentinian press it wasn't reported like that)

  9. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Alien

    Zork to Yegolf

    Damn. I nearly got it that time. Your turn to try for the blue one.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Zork to Yegolf

      For that, you are likely to be eaten by a grue.

  10. Colin Bain

    Close, but no cigar

    "In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded."

    qualified by "that we know of"

  11. Radio Wales
    Linux

    There's no need to panic. All these near-misses are just previously commissioned space rocks dropping in for an update to their operating systems. IBM OS 2.a

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