[dylan604]

> but come within like 20 meters of it?

like is doing some heavy lifting here. We have had asteroids pass by at a distance closer than the moon. That's pretty damn close in my book relative to the size of the cosmos. At that scale, that's pretty much a ringer in horse shoes.

The buzzcut is a very strange question though. If the thing enters the atmosphere and does not burn up, it is hitting the ground.

[ahazred8ta]

You are slightly mistaken. There have been hit-and-run asteroids that entered the upper atmosphere and skipped through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Great_Daylight_Fireball The Grand Teton Meteor / The Great Daylight Fireball of 1972 came within 35 miles of the surface. A huge iron meteor might survive a low pass but this would be a very rare event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Earth-grazing_firebal...

[potamic]

In 1972, someone happened to have a camera when this passed by and captured an absolutely gorgeous shot with the Tetons in the backdrop.

https://www.gardenofmemory.net/the-great-daylight-fireball-o...

[ahazred8ta]

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WlCfuPrszU -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4nP9jcFBJQ

[dylan604]

oh boy. that second link is a hoot!

[Aachen]

35 miles is hardly a 20 meters' "buzzcut". The odds of that happening are probably worse than winning the lottery seventeen years in row