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City-Sized Asteroid to Pass Earth This Fall
FiniteLoop sends a collection of links about a city-sized asteroid named Toutatis which will approach - but miss - Earth this September. MSNBC also has a story, and JPL and the Near Earth Object program have more information.
Where can I get a Celestia add-on for this asteroid?
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
Would it have been that hard to find a moderately well known city to use for the comparison? Paris sized? Or Rose Bud, Arkansas sized?
:-)
Not trolling...just asking
Someone call Bruce Willis!
"The only thing us Gauls have to fear is the sky falling on our heads"
I always thought it would be cool to catch one of these asteroids and plunk it into a nice orbit for scavanging or using as a huge horkin' space station. However nudging it into orbit would be bad if you misjudged and plunked it down on someone (which in turn could be a great way to get rid of somebody you don't like and make it look like an accident, but that is another story).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
But, they fail to mention that it is of such size as to have sufficient gravity that when it passes, it will rip the oceans from the face of the earth and carry them off into space.
All you doubters are gonna be mighty thirsty. It's going to be a hot dry 2005!
ACK! "But Miss" sounds like a negative statement. I, for one, wouldn't feel the least bit sad if we're excluded from the city-sized-meteor-strikes-planet team.
-- In Soviet Russia, radio listens to YOU!
All of these misses... Geez, the universe sure does have bad aim!
Would they tell us if it was going to hit? Why wouldn't they? Why would they?
*DrugCheese rants*
On Sept. 29, 2004 an asteroid the size of a small city ...
Toutatis is about 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide (4.6 by 2.4 kilometers).
Well, most small cities are about 30 feet thick (about 10 feet of plumbing underground, plus a two story building above-ground), so I'm not so worried.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Is this going to set stuff off? The Ocean Tides? Car Alarms?
- Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
...Anna Nicole, but was recently renamed.
is to nuke or nudge.
We've seen Toutatis before:
:)
1989, 1992, 2004
http://www.iki.rssi.ru/solar/eng/toutatis.htm
Oh! it looks like this headline will come every four years... just enough time for people to forget
Check it out
She loves me: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 She loves me not: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688BF
As in Bob The Angry Flower:
http://www.angryflower.com/astero.gif
---- Take the Space Quiz!
Too bad we cant capture it and put it in a lagrange point.
Makes more sense to do it that way than shuttle all the crap up from earth....
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
OMG, is there enough time to make the TV movie???
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Are they sure it's completely flat?
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Just like presidential elections!
(I kid, of course: there's no way to escape election hoopla - carefully distinguished from useful content - for at least 2 of the 4 intervening years.)
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Asterix and Obelix fans may recall that Toutatis, a name frequently invoked by those indomitable Gauls, is in fact the ancient French god of war, growth and prosperity.
Invoking Toutatis during battle was supposed to bring about certain victory for the pre-Christian French warriors. Which is why it is such an appropriate moniker for a comet that appears just once every 500 years... ;-)
A recent attempt to fuse the tectonic plates failed and caused the oceans to drain into fault lines. We are keeping the oceans for ourselves!
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
The dinosaurs are extinct cos they didn't have a space programme.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
- 0.01 Texas'
- 2000 Rock of Gibraltar's
- 5000 Library Of Congress's
- 10000 Empire State buildings
- 20000 Football Stadiums
- 150000 Houses
- 300000 Semi Trucks
- 2300000 "New Beetle's"
- 2500000 VW Bugs
- 30 Oprah's || CowboyNeal's
(unit conversions came out of my ass just, like most stats)--
Power to the Peaceful
Obviously I've been spending too much time playing this.
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
It's the only way to be sure.
And another swing and a miss by the Kuiper belt, the Kuiper belt is batting a
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Actually, it appears every 4 years.
01000001 01011001 01000010 01000001 01000010 01010100 01010101
Isn't there enough mass here to affect the tides? 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide is quite a bit of area, especially if it's condensed.
Quick order of magnitude calculation: Radius ~10^3 times smaller than moon -> ~10^9 times smaller mass than moon if comparable material.
Also closest distance is 4 times greater than moon and gravity scales as distance squared so the tidal affects of this thing ought to be of the order 10^-10 times as strong as those from the moon - in other words impossible to notice.
Tor
God does not play dice with the universe... ...He plays billiards
If it were going to hit us? They probably wouldn't tell anyone, since they can't do anything about it anyway. You'd just see a suspicious number of politicians planning to spend some vacation time in "our underground bunker in the mountains."
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I imagine it will be more difficult to do this as things continue to heat up.
-FL
In case you don't know how to do either of those, I'll tell you [regards to Monty Python, etc]
1) Make a million dollars. Don't pay taxes.
2) Get a block of wood. Carve away all the bits that don't look like a boat.
Nothing personal, nizo, I am just whoring for a funny moderation, but basically what you have just said is slight variation on a slashdot meme:
1) ?
2) use the asteroid for cool stuff.
3) profit!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
"...it will zoom by our planet within a million miles, or about four times the distance to the Moon."
It would be cool if they could plant monitoring devices and instruments on it and then collect the data when it comes back around in four years.
Dustin - A different story...
:) That brought a smile to my face. And to answer your question, well not too much!
However, it is quite funny that my comment was merely an observation of how eschatological religions would react to a situation like this, and the fact that it modded down once again proves that religious zealots abound this place.
It is the truth, religions and religious zealots would proclaim something or the other and cause mass uprisings, and that is probably one good reason why even if the space agencies knew about such a thing, they should not let it out.
And the last statement was merely an observation - with the current administration being right-wing conservative, and the religious climate in the rest of the world, no matter what comes to pass, people will use "faith" as an excuse and throw money at religious godheads and godmen.
I do not see any nation (well, maybe with the exception of China) where people will rather not spend money on religion than on real solutions - that is what pisses me off. If half the faith and the funds were directed towards legitimate purposes, it would atleast make the world a better place.
For all the people worring about massive worldwide destruction, have a gander at the Asteroid Impact Simulator
...then you're looking at some pretty serious earthquakes and lots of broken windows within a 1000-km radius, but the worst damage would be confined to about a 250-km radius.
Assumptions:
-- the asteroid would be travelling at a "typical" velocity on impact, or about 17 km/s
-- the asteroid is primarily composed of dense rock, rather than solid iron
-- it impacts Earth at about a 45-degree angle
-- it hits land, not water (actually not too likely, considering Earth's surface is 75% water)
Of course, this also assumes that the asteroid wouldn't break apart in the atmosphere. This thing isn't the most stable, solid asteroid ever -- the space.com article even makes mention of how narrow its "waist" is, and that it might simply be two large chunks that collided gently, sticking together because of gravity. If that's the case, it would almost certainly break apart and its impact wouldn't be nearly as severe.
It would take a much bigger space rock than this to wipe out humanity.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
Thermal Radiation:
Time for maximum radiation:
3.29 seconds after impact
Visible fireball radius:
8.4 km = 5.2 miles
The fireball appears 2.4 times larger than the sun
Thermal Exposure:
1.19 x 105 Joules/m2
Duration of Irradiation:
77 seconds
Radiant flux (relative to the sun):
1.5
Seismic Effects:
The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 161.0 seconds.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 9.1 (This is greater than any shaking in recorded history)
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 805 km: IV. Hanging objects swing. Vibration like passing of heavy trucks; or sensation of a jolt like a heavy ball striking the walls. Standing motor cars rock. Windows, dishes, doors rattle. Glasses clink. Crockery clashes. In the upper range of IV wooden walls and frame creak.
V. Felt outdoors; direction estimated. Sleepers wakened. Liquids disturbed, some spilled. Small unstable objects displaced or upset. Doors swing, close, open. Shutters, pictures move. Pendulum clocks stop, start, change rate.
Ejecta:
The ejecta will arrive approximately 436.0 seconds after the impact.
Average Ejecta Thickness:
2.7 cm = 1.04 inches
Mean Fragment Diameter:
1.4 mm = 0.0561 inches
Air Blast:
The air blast will arrive at approximately 2683.3 seconds.
Peak Overpressure:
39729.6 Pa = 0.3973 bars = 5.6416 psi
Max wind velocity:
73.5 m/s = 164.5 mph Sound Intensity:
92 dB (May cause ear pain)
Damage Description:
Wood frame buildings will almost completely collapse. Glass windows will shatter. Up to 90 percent of trees blown down; remainder stripped of branches and leaves.
So: In a nut shell:
the asteroid smacks LA. A great cheer is heard round the world - that idoitic show Friends is finally off the air, and now nature is here to make sure it never sees re-runs. A fitting punishment, much like that space byport problem meted out for Really Bad Poetry. So, all in all, the erasure of Los Angeles isn't such a bad thing, in the greater scheme of things - no more Meg Ryan movies, Bruce and Demi vapourised - aaaah - not so bad at all!
The problem is:
on the horizon would be a largish fireball, and things here in SF would get really warm for about a minute or two. Then 2 minutes and 41 seconds later, an earthquake hits, the likes of which makes 1906 look like a joyride. Then about 5 and a half minutes later gravel comes flying out of the sky at supersonic speed. Then about 45 minutes later the wind hits at 165 miles per hour, pretty much scouring the bay area of anything left alive.
So, while it would completely wipe LA off the map (YAY!!!) and leave a crater 35 miles wide ( |{3vv|_ !!! ) it will first lightly toast (boo!) then pulverise with hypersonic gravel (EEEK!!) then shake to pieces (Bad. Reeeally Bad) and then blow away (Suckage!) the Bay Area.
Therefore, it is incumbent on the Bay Area to find a way to stop such a rock from hitting the earth, because, as we all know, such disasters only hit two cities: Tokyo and LA. And given that Tokyo is being continuously reduced to rubble by those giant lizards, Moths and Turtles, it's the rocks we have to watch out for.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Your post got me to thinking - if the dinosaurs had been sentient, what evidence would they have left behind that they had built cities, space programs etc.? Would a reptilian Vesuvius survive for 60 million years? Would we recognize it as such if we found it?
Howdy all,
Reading this article got me thinking about how often we hear about these 'near-misses' well odds are we had just as many 'near-misses' for the last 100 years.
Well I witnessed a very unusual event about 21 years ago.
I was "camping" in our back yard with a school-chum (we were about 10 years old at the time) and late in the night (11pm - 1am Eastern) We saw in the south-west sky (Southern Ontario near Detroit, MI) a bright orange object. (Bright orange because it was obviously in the semi-shadow of the Earth, bent light thing)
It was about the size of a soccer-ball (held 4' away) and very high in the sky. We saw it BOUNCE twice and disappear over the western horizon.
No flames from the atmosphere, but it was covered with impact craters. (It looked like a mini version of the moon) Very cool stuff that I will never forget.
Who/Where/How can I bring this to (vague information and all) to find out exactly what it was? I don't remember hearing anything about it in the news the next day, but I was probably more interested in GI Joe.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
weighs in at 2800kg under earth gravity ?
5.5 tera-newtons of mass ?
half a newton/meter of force ?
car engine doing a couple of hundred Newton/meters ?
weight (a mass under acceleration) is measured in Newton (kg.m/s/s, not kg)
mass in kg (not in newton)
force in Newton (not in newton/meter)
torque in Nm (Newton times meter, not Newtons per meter)
Explain what the torque of a car engine has to do with moving an asteroid, unless you have found a place to stand on and use Archimedes' lever ?
Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
One of these near-miss asteroids _should_ be used for real life evaluation of asteroid nudging.
1) Plan beforehands, reserve ammunition
2) *kapow*
3) Analyze and learn.
A stone like this would provide excellent material for evaluating different methods; is it better to nuke the stone, mount a rocket or do something else.
Hogbert
Microserf: 18.5% slashdot corrupt
Well, given that this thred was started by a superconductivity guy, it seems only natural to ask, how about inducing an itty bitty (relatively) current across said asteroid if it is indeed mostly iron (some aren't, ya know) and try to get the induced magnetic field aligned to get it to shift path within the solar system's ambient fields? After all, we're talking about a LONG period of time and a tiny shift in direction. I'm too lazy to do the numbers, but seems to me that rockets of any sort might be a needlessly brute force approach. (And yes, I *did* just reread Flynn's Lodestar .)
Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.