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    Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon
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    Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon

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    2. Cheapskate-DM on

      Unironically this could be cool. If the asteroid in question has metals, it’d prompt a new space race to go check that shit out.

    4. noncongruent on

      If the odds get significantly higher, maybe 10-20%, it would be time to fly some seismometers to the Moon. The amount of science we could get from the impact monitoring would be staggering.

    5. free_is_free76 on

      How big of a crater would this make? What craters of a similar size already exist on the moon?

    7. coltonmusic15 on

      Man on the moon gets headshot and us Earthlings gotta deal with the backsplash

    10. HungryKing9461 on

      I can pretty much guarantee that if things hits the Moon, on the near side, and is spectacular to watch…

      …it’ll be raining in Dublin that night.

    11. dontevercallmeabully on

      If there’s a risk it hits the moon, isn’t there a risk it slingshots back to us?

    13. Andromeda321 on

      Astronomer here! Worth noting this asteroid is about the size of a smaller skyscraper (40-90 meters), so I’m all for it! At the distance to the moon this wouldn’t affect us much** but would be *very* cool to see!

      Fun fact if you want to know what it might look like- a monk named [Gervase of Canterbury](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gervase_of_Canterbury) might have seen such an impact in 1178, and he wrote the following:

      > “the upper horn [of the moon] split in two.” Furthermore, Gervase writes, “From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the Moon which was below writhed, as it were in anxiety, and to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the Moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes at random and then returning to normal. Then, after these transformations, the Moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance”.

      So, as I said. Would be really cool to see!

      ** If like me you have indulged in some random trashy dystopian future YA novels, you will point out to me this is exactly what the astronomers say in [Life As We Knew It](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213753.Life_As_We_Knew_It). So, yay?