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Comment on Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

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Am I the only one who read the article hoping for a "If it DID hit the earth, X would happen..."?

The object that caused the 1908 Tunguska event is estimated to be either 40 or 60 meters in diameter[1], and it still managed to do an incredible amount of damage[2]. The object described here has a diameter of 400 meters. My understanding is that this wouldn't be anywhere near as devastating as the impact associated with the K-T extinction event, but it certainly wouldn't be very good for anyone.

[1] http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/news_detail.cfm?ID=179

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

A couple of nights ago a had strange dream about asteroids hitting earth. Didn't think much of it... still don't think much it.... but I would like to know where this would hit if it were to hit.

That's kindof like not having a sweater, and asking what color it would be if you had one. If you alter reality such that it would hit, I think you sortof have your arbitrary choice of where.

Hmm, I wonder if the poles would get hit less often than the tropics due to the distribution of asteroids being more or less in the ecliptic, or whether that's not sufficiently significant. Probably not -- I don't know of any latitude-dependent distribution of lunar craters.

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