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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday 7 June 2013

Asteroid to fly within moon's orbit - will pass within the distance from the Earth to the moon this weekend -


Asteroid to fly within moon's orbit - will pass within the distance from the Earth to the moon this weekend - 



A small, newly discovered asteroid will pass within the distance from the Earth to the moon this weekend, and you can watch its approach live online today.
The space rock, called 2013 LR6, is between 16-53 feet wide and is in no danger of hitting the Earth, experts say. The garbage truck-size asteroid's closest approach will bring it about 68,351 miles above the surface of the planet tomorrow.
You can watch a live asteroid-tracking webcast on SPACE.com today that features views and expert commentary hosted by the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT. You can also follow the broadcast directly through the Virtual Telescope Project.
"It is a very safe distance, so it will be a great show!" astrophysicist Gianluca Masi with the Virtual Telescope Project wrote in a statement.
At the time of the webcast, the asteroid will be about 186,411 miles away, Masi said.
Tomorrow, when it makes its closest approach, the space rock will be visible from only the Southern Hemisphere. The asteroid, at a magnitude of about 16.5 on the astronomers' brightness scale, is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.
This flyby comes on the heels of another close brush Earth had with a space rock last Friday. An asteroid the size of nine cruise ships dubbed Asteroid 1998 QE2 whizzed by our planet traveling within 3.6 million miles of Earth's surface. 1998 QE2 has its own moon, estimated at 2,000 feet wide, according to NASA.
2013 has been a big year for close encounters with near-Earth objects. On the same day in February, an asteroid the size of a football field flew within 17,200 miles of Earth, while — in an unrelated incident — a meteor exploded over Russia, injuring hundreds and damaging property.


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Bear caught opening truck door on video - Smarter than average bear opens vehicle doors and gets inside -


Bear caught opening truck door on video - Smarter than average bear opens vehicle doors and gets inside - 



A Maple Ridge, B.C., resident caught an unusual sight on video this week — a bear standing on its hind legs breaking into a pickup truck.

Rebecca Moore, who took the video and posted it to YouTube on Tuesday, says she and her husband were awakened by a noise outside at about 5:30 a.m.

"By the time we got out of bed, [the bear] was actually inside one of our cars. We saw the car door open and it was just coming out one of our cars," she said.

"We saw him just open the door of the truck, just easy as anything.… He was obviously used to accessing vehicles."

Moore said she just had to capture the "unbelievable" sight on camera.

"It was just the amazement, really. You just couldn't believe what you were seeing," she said. "It was just too amazing not to take a video."

Moore says she and her husband chased the bear away from the property as soon as they stopped filming.

Conservation officer Denny Chretien believes the three-year-old bear has broken into other cars in the area.

"It's not a common behaviour but it is occurring."

Chretien says conservation officers have received four calls about bears breaking into cars, including one involving a Porsche.

He advises residents not to leave food or lock up garbage in their cars.

"They don't have the container, so they'll go put in in the vehicle and shut the door and bears will just go, 'What is this?' and it's just a bigger container," he said.

"They'll give it a test and there's so much things to grip on to in a vehicle and they just start ripping."

The Moores, meanwhile, say they're just glad they didn't leave the keys in the ignition.



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