Missed ... by that much

By JAMES ANTHONY

Footage of Killer Asteroid
NASA
Royal Astronomical Society
SETI Australia
SETI Institute

A massive asteroid that could have devastated south-east Australia hurtled close by the Earth early on Monday night (7 January).

The asteroid, known as 2001 YB5, passed within 600,000 kilometres of the planet.

It may sound a long way away, but in galactic terms, it was a very near thing!

Experts say the 500-metre wide lump of rock would have wiped out a medium-sized country. Consider the fact that in 1908 a 60-metre asteroid smashed into Siberia and released the same amount of energy as 600 nuclear bombs and you get the picture.

If it had hit Earth near Melbourne then nothing would have survived within 150 kilometres of the impact point and the waves of destruction would have devastated Sydney and possibly Adelaide.

2001 YB5 was discovered in December by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) telescope on Mount Palomar in California.

It is only one of several hundred large asteroids that will pass close to earth and are being tracked by astronomers and official agencies around the globe.

Talk about the stuff movies are made of!