THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street      Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249      usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N    70.2667° W  Altitude:  10 feet below sea level Founded
January 1970
2021-2022: C
“Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you’ll
be a mile from them, and you’ll have their shoes.”    -Jack Handey.

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
April Fool's Asteroid

April Fool's Day would be the worst time for an asteroid strike! Try to
warn people about the impending impact and you would elicit little more
than annoyed skepticism. "Seriously! You can't think of a better April
Fool's jes than that?!" someone might snap at you while ignoring the oblong
shadow growing along the ground.

So, here goes!
A Potentially Hazardous Asteroid is due for a near-miss on April Fool's
Day. This careening space rock will tumble precariously close to Terra
Firma, but will not hit us, hence the term "near miss."

We personally object to the term "near miss," which is terribly mis-leading
as it suggests a strike that almost missed, but didn't. Case in point: that
Rock on Oscar night. Of course, the entire previous paragraph was a bit
misleading. This asteroid, dubbed 2007 FF1, won't come any closer than 4.6
million miles on the national prank day. In other words, it will be 18
times farther away from us than the Moon: not much of a near-miss, even by
asteroid standards.

Measuring 360 feet by 656 feet, 2007 FF1 will be speeding along at the
devil-may-care pace of 29,800 miles per hour. Granted, this asteroid would
wreak some havoc were it to actually hit Earth, although it wouldn't end
the Anthropocene the way that 10-mile wide asteroid laid waste to the
Cretaceous about 66 million years ago. All the same, we are all the better
for this "near-miss."

Classified as an Apollo asteroid, or Earth-crosser, 2007 FF1 is regarded as
a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) because it has the potential to
become an Earth impactor at some point during its myriad close approaches
to Earth. Orbital analysis has not revealed any specific impact dates.
However, as is true with many Earth-crossers, 2007 FF1 could prove
problematic in time.

However, on April Fool's Day, 2007 FF1 will tumble harmlessly by our
beautiful planet before receding into the unbounded colliered night.
Although, on April 1st, feel free to point to the sky and proclaim that an
asteroid will be swooping in for a visit. Let us know what type of reaction
you elicit.


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