http://www.wtop.com/?nid=884&sid=2624431
WASHINGTON -- You won't want to close your eyes, you won't want to fall asleep. If scientists are wrong, not even Ben Affleck can save you.
An asteroid the size of the U.S.S. Nimitz passed by Earth Tuesday. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program says the impact of the rock, dubbed 2005 YU55, would equal a 4,000-megaton blast and create 70-foot high tsunami waves, CBS News reports.
That's near 200,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
NASA predicted the murderous cosmic body will miss our planet by about 202,000 miles. That's about 0.85 times the distance to the moon, NASA says. The last time an asteroid this size came this close to Earth was in 1976, and it shouldn't happen again until 2028 -- provided we're still here.
The asteroid passed by around 6:28 p.m. Tuesday.
WASHINGTON -- You won't want to close your eyes, you won't want to fall asleep. If scientists are wrong, not even Ben Affleck can save you.
An asteroid the size of the U.S.S. Nimitz passed by Earth Tuesday. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program says the impact of the rock, dubbed 2005 YU55, would equal a 4,000-megaton blast and create 70-foot high tsunami waves, CBS News reports.
That's near 200,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
NASA predicted the murderous cosmic body will miss our planet by about 202,000 miles. That's about 0.85 times the distance to the moon, NASA says. The last time an asteroid this size came this close to Earth was in 1976, and it shouldn't happen again until 2028 -- provided we're still here.
The asteroid passed by around 6:28 p.m. Tuesday.
