Two asteroids passed close to Earth Wednesday

the size of these asteroids are two to three times smaller than the Tunguska impactor of 1908, and assured there was no danger of a collision with Earth.

Things to take note of:

1) An airburst 1/2 or 1/3 the size of Tunguska whould still kill many millions if it happened over a large city.

2) The objects were discovered on the 4th of April of this year, two days before their closest approach, so they were not detected until it would have been far too late to respond had they been on a collision course.

3) Again, even a 10 meter asteroid has the potential to kill several million people in the worst case scenario. This was a very close call by comparison to the potential losses, and nobody even mentioned it, and nobody "really" has any plan to deal with this issue.

Impact velocity would have been perhaps 15km/s had it been on a collision course.

If the rock has a density of 3g/cm, then it would be a 42kiloton explosion, or ~4 x atomic bombs: A city killer.

QC, i think the possibility of an asteroid hitting a city is same as trying to hit a 3' x 3' window with a rock a mile away.

I think a good asteroid impact during our current times will take a great deal of people out of their bubble modern society and make them realize how fragile we and our earth really are. Maybe then it would mean less politics in the environmental debates.

What a crap!
Worst case of a 10m asteroid:
72km/h impact, 8000kg/cbm, 90° impact
Effect:
"The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 37300 meters = 122000 ft
The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 15900 meters = 52000 ft.
The residual velocity of the projectile fragments after the burst is 47.4 km/s = 29.4 miles/s.
The energy of the airburst is 6.16 x 10^15 Joules = 1.47 x 10^0 MegaTons.
Large fragments strike the surface and may create a crater strewn field."
Means 1500t TNT at 16km heigt - no effect on the ground!
www.purdue.edu/impactearth

What a crap!
Worst case of a 10m asteroid:
72km/h impact, 8000kg/cbm, 90 impact
Effect:
"The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 37300 meters = 122000 ft
The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 15900 meters = 52000 ft.
The residual velocity of the projectile fragments after the burst is 47.4 km/s = 29.4 miles/s.
The energy of the airburst is 6.16 x 10^15 Joules = 1.47 x 10^0 MegaTons.
Large fragments strike the surface and may create a crater strewn field."
Means 1500t TNT at 16km heigt - no effect on the ground!
http://www.purdue...actearth

Depends on composition, speed, angle, etc. What made barringer crater was only 2x your example when it hit, 4x when it entered the atmosphere:
http://www.space....ved.html

There was also another meteor that came closer and exploded over New Zealand on the 30th of March too!

http://www.stuff....h-Island

QC, i think the possibility of an asteroid hitting a city is same as trying to hit a 3' x 3' window with a rock a mile away.

If 50cal ball ammo can be considered a rock, I could do that easily.

Two asteroids...hmmmmm. Reminds me of the three statisticians who took up bow hunting. They saw a deer. First one's arrow was ten feet to the left. Second one's arrow was ten feet to the right. Third one started jumping up and down and yelling, "We got it!"------- First asteroid was 200,000 miles to the left...

More chances of calamities due to our own negligence with regard to the planet's welfare than "deep-impact" worries.