Asteroid near miss will be visible

Asteroid near miss will be visible ››: 2004MN₄, the asteroid which for a brief time looked like the last thing that was going to be on our minds, will pass by us only 22,600 km away on 13-Apr-2029. In his excellent book A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson aptly describes the 1991 flyby of asteroid 1991BA (closest approach 170,000 km) as "in cosmic terms the equivalent of a bullet passing through one's sleeve without touching the arm". I suggest that the visit by 2004MN₄ will be the cosmic equivalent of a bullet parting your hair, or zipping across your mouth as you open it to say "What the…?!". After it has whizzed by closer than our geosynchronous satellites, its trajectory will be unpredictably altered by our gravity well; furious calculations will ensue. Wikipedia has a page on 2004MN4. (via); [Permalink…06-Feb-05…Deserving memes…]

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