[meteorite-list] Mile Wide Asteroid Passes Close On March 6 (2000 PN9)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mile_Wide_Asteroid_Passes_Close_On_Monday.html

Mile Wide Asteroid Passes Close On Monday
SpaceDaily
March 5, 2006

Boulder CO (SPX) - An asteroid named 2000 PN9 will fly past Earth at a distance of 
about 2 million miles on March 6. There is no danger of a collision with the 
mile-wide space rock, but its nearest approach distance of eight lunar distances - 
on average, the Moon is 384,401 kilometers, or 246,017 miles away.

It will be bright enough (12th magnitude) for amateur astronomers to photograph it 
using larger backyard telescopes and CCD cameras.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids are space rocks larger than about 100 meters (300 
feet) wide that can approach Earth at distances closer than 0.05 astronomical units 
(the distance from Earth to the Sun), or about 4.6 million miles.

At present, none of the 776 known PHAs is on a collision course with the planet for 
the foreseeable future - although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.