Asteroid (around July 3rd)

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201355,00.html


An asteroid possibly as large as a half-mile or more in diameter
is rapidly approaching the Earth.

There is no need for concern, for no collision is in the offing, but the space rock will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet early on Monday, July 3, passing just beyond the Moon's average distance from Earth.

Astronomers will attempt to get a more accurate assessment of the asteroid's size by "pinging" it with radar.
 
There have been close calls with asteroids in the past, take 2002 for example when an undetected asteroid approached the earth and was not discovered until after it had passed within 1.2x the distance of the moon's orbit from Earth.

If by incident this rather large asteroid happens to hit the moon en route, then we have fireworks for July 3rd too. Although the moon is 2160 miles in diameter, the asteroid can still produce several megatons equivalent of a nuke bomb on the moon's surface.

Better have a binocular or telescope handy, because the asteroid will appear the size of a star in the sky and no larger unless it's on a collison course which is unlikely in this case.
 
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