The 1,300-foot-wide asteroid came within roughly 201,000 miles of the planet, within the moon's orbit. Posing no threat to Earth, it allowed NASA scientists at the Deep Space Network antenna in the Mojave Desert their closest peek ever at such a massive space rock.
The radar images were detailed enough to allow NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, based in La Caņada Flintridge, to create a short video of the spinning asteroid as it approached.
The thing that really gets to me about the picture above is the fact that it has been repeatedly portrayed in at least a dozen different science fiction novels and books. I was trying to think of the ones I could name:
Lucifer's Hammer (1977 Niven & Pournelle novel)
Meteor (1979 movie)
Armageddon (1998 movie)
Deep Impact (1998 movie)
Meteor (2009 TV mini-series)
I'm sure there must be lots of others; any earlier than Niven and Pournelle? I guess you could count When Worlds Collide, even though it uses a planet rather than an asteroid.
SpaceX Intros Extravehicular Activity Suit
'Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere.' - Garrett P. Serviss, 1898.
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.' - L. Ron Hubbard, 1948.
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Drug To Regenerate Teeth In Humans
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.