One of my favorite classes back when I was in high school (A LONG TIME AGO) was astronomy. I learned a lot from the class. I went on to also take a college class on the topic. Loved it. While it's not an overwhelming passion of mine, I do like to dabble around and check things out on occasion.
As I was home sick from work today (That's why this is so late) I've been surfing, reading, watching TV... All the things you can do while confined to a recliner. I came across this interesting bit in one of my books. It kinda makes you step back and go... WOW... that would have been bad.
Here is the text:
In 1937 the tiny asteroid Hermes passed uncomfortably close to the Earth, at a distance of less than twice that of the moon. Astronomers later discovered that in 1942 it passed even closer. On March 23, 1989, a thousand-foot-wide asteroid missed impacting the Earth by only 400,000 miles, passing through the exact position the Earth was in six hours before. (Folks, that's too close for comfort) If it had hit the Earth, the resulting explosion would have been the largest in recorded history. And in 2002, another asteroid missed impacting the Earth by only 75,000 miles, or 1/3 the distance to the moon. Astronomers did not even discover the near-impact until three days later.
It kind of makes that big universe... well... feel real small.
-Red
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