Posted by
CowboyNeal
on from the heavenly-bodies dept.
loconet writes "The BBC is reporting that astronomers have discovered the first object ever that is in a companion orbit to the Earth. Asteroid 2002 AA29 is only about 100 metres wide and never comes closer than 3.6 million miles to our planet."
Better get the calculations right!
by
Randar+the+Lava+Liza
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· Score: 3, Insightful
They better not have any of those metric conversion errors if they try this operation:
Some have speculated that it could be nudged into a permanent Earth orbit where it could be studied at greater length.
cough Mars Climate Orbiter cough.
-- Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anais Nin
Horseshoe orbit?
by
jovlinger
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Can sny rocket scientists out there explain how two bodies in the same orbit can have different velocities, AND how the relative velocities can change over time?
They claim that for 90 odd years, the asteroid will accellerate ahead of us, to catch up with earth from behind, at which point it will fall back and we'll cath up with it. And then it repeats.
weird! I can't figure out how this is comes about, and the article didn't think it worth mentioning.
Detailed observations of its trajectory through space show that 2002 AA29 will reach its minimum close approach to the Earth - 12 times the distance between Earth and the Moon - at 1900 GMT on 8 January 2003.
It will be closest to Earth in 2003, and will be nearby for awhile after. As it is much, much closer than Mars, it very well may become the next body visited.
I wonder how hard it would be to pull that asteroid to earth orbit for mining or as an anchor to a space elevator, a la the [almost] original concept by Arthur C. Clarke (later designs use a man made anchor).
If we can mine useful materials, we could build some cool, big ass stuff probably cheaper than we would carry all that weight from the surface.
--
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
Re:Brother? Yes, it is a minor planet
by
saskboy
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Any body of rock that is orbiting the Sun and not another planet, is a minor planet if it is not a major planet like Mercury, or Jupiter. Asteroids are also known as minor planets.
Slashdot Mirror
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anais Nin
Can sny rocket scientists out there explain how two bodies in the same orbit can have different velocities, AND how the relative velocities can change over time?
They claim that for 90 odd years, the asteroid will accellerate ahead of us, to catch up with earth from behind, at which point it will fall back and we'll cath up with it. And then it repeats.
weird! I can't figure out how this is comes about, and the article didn't think it worth mentioning.
from the article:
Detailed observations of its trajectory through space show that 2002 AA29 will reach its minimum close approach to the Earth - 12 times the distance between Earth and the Moon - at 1900 GMT on 8 January 2003.
It will be closest to Earth in 2003, and will be nearby for awhile after. As it is much, much closer than Mars, it very well may become the next body visited.
I wonder how hard it would be to pull that asteroid to earth orbit for mining or as an anchor to a space elevator, a la the [almost] original concept by Arthur C. Clarke (later designs use a man made anchor).
If we can mine useful materials, we could build some cool, big ass stuff probably cheaper than we would carry all that weight from the surface.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
Any body of rock that is orbiting the Sun and not another planet, is a minor planet if it is not a major planet like Mercury, or Jupiter. Asteroids are also known as minor planets.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Neither your sig nor this sentence contains a paradox.
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