(meteorobs) PART OF ASTEROID 2011 CA HITS??

[Wayne Hally]

Typical youtube hype.

Facts:
Close approach of 2011 CA7 (not 2011 CA) took place at 19:28 UT +/- 2 min on
Feb 9 at 0.0006922 +/- 0.000037 AU. That's 103,552 +/- 5535 km, or 63,344
+/- 3439 miles.

It was 2-5 meters in size (quite small by asteroid standards).

The closest approach to the earth's surface was about 97,181 +/- km.

That is not, as the youtube video stated closer than satellites; it's a
quarter of the way to the moon.

Any suggestion that it hit earth ignores these facts.

It's not even the closest approach by a known asteroid in the last month,
that would be 2011 CQ1 on  Feb 4 at 5484 km above the surface. That one WAS
closer than geostationary satellites. In the last month, 6 newly discovered
asteroids have passed within 2 X lunar distance. It's a testament to the
amazing ability of the 3 Catalina Survey search programs at Catalina, Mt
Lemmon, and Siding Springs to find such small and faint objects.

2011 CA7 has a 1 in 1.85 million chance of impacting the earth's atmosphere
between 2062 and 2099. That places it at somewhere around 300th place in the
list of known risky asteroids.

Wayne

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of notagoodangel721
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2011 10:16 AM
To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
Subject: (meteorobs) PART OF ASTEROID 2011 CA HITS??

This is going around the web today.  Any truth to it?
http://strictlyhonest.com/forum/general-discussions/nasa-just-discovered-ano
ther-asteroid-2011-ca7/

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