this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Yeet!

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[–] Codpiece@feddit.uk 63 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

An asteroid roughly the size of one to two school buses

Anything except metric.

[–] Elilol@fedinsfw.app 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do these school buses come with gun shots?

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Would little craters that look like bullet impacts count?

[–] X@piefed.world 4 points 1 month ago

Don’t see why not

[–] Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is the only unit of public transportation Americans will understand.

[–] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But what kind? Flat face? Oldschool? Short bus?

There are many sizes of school busses!

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

The twin peaks kind of school bus

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Easy. The asteroid is the size of 5 minivan school busses that pick up the one kid isolated in the suburb development that actually belongs to the next town over but overstepped the border because the farm it replaced was owned since before the state existed. Really not that hard to figure out

[–] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

See now that I can imagine the size of.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

*Another

What's needed is a 24/7 space-based observation system, not rely on leftover observation time on telescopes and amateur aid. The near misses are rarely even close, and the sizes are small enough to at most endanger a small area, but it's a lesson that if there ever was a big one, we wouldn't even know or be able to do anything. Find the big ones very early, we might be able to change the future, but we won't find them with how we look now.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let me introduce you to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

If I recall correctly a similar one was planned for the northern hemisphere but science is too expensive.

[–] snowydroopz@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah makes sense, but bilions and bilions on stupid unnecessary wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocents OBVIOUSLY isnt too expensive, no no. If you'll excuse me, have to ask for another 100 million from my sponsers to fund my political events that benefit no one but my own interests, ciao.

[–] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago

Now now, if we compare things to military budgets then a lot of things become ridiculously obvious...

[–] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sorry folks. Back to work.

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

/c/disappointingnews

[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago
[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Based on assumptions about how much light is reflected, 2026JH2 is currently estimated to be between 15 and 30 meters (49 and 98 feet) in diameter. At the smaller end of that range, Michel said, it would be similar in size to a bolide, or fireball, that exploded in the atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, shattering windows and injuring 1,000 people. At the highest end of the range, it would be closer in size to an object that exploded near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, which pulverized large swaths of forest.

I find it amazing that doubling a small object’s size seems to a produce a non-linear increase in impact effect. The majority of the earth’s surface is water or sparsely inhabited, but something just 30 meters across has the effect of a low nuclear yield. A week’s worth of notice on one of these striking near a large city would be pretty chaotic.

With all the private space exploration gaining traction, it surprises me that there’s not more dedicated to detecting objects that intersect our trajectory.

[–] zout@fedia.io 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you double the diameter, the volume increases 8-fold, and also the mass.

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

Additionally, doubling the diameter results in doubling the surface area to volume ratio which increases the percentage of the mass that survives atmosphere entry.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago

Small ones will mostly ablate in the atmosphere. Bigger ones will still end up solid enough to come apart and either strike or explode above ground.

[–] kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Damn... We could use a reset.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

This is a report from the new stupid unscientific NahSAa. I'm sure its just a distraction...

....oh shit! I just came back from 3 weeks in the future and we're pretty much gonners. Love each other, it could be the last time.

[–] YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Damn maybe next time.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

By how many pygmy marmosets this time?

[–] unknown@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

Don't Look Up had the good ending, man this timeline sucks.

[–] diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

A thing you didn’t know about did nothing. The end .