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Asteroid 4179 Toutatis Will Miss Earth, This Time
EtherAlchemist writes "National Geographic News reports in this story that a giant, peanut shaped asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will pass within 1 million miles of Earth on Weds, the 29th. When it does, it will be the closest any known object of this size (3 miles) has passed near Earth in this century. No worry about impact yet, it should pose no threat until at least 2562. An interesting note: the asteroid believed to have caused Earth's biggest mass extinction is thought to have been between 3.7 and 7.5 miles as reported here in 2001." 2004 FU162 came closer, but is a much smaller object.
When it does, it will be the closest any known object of this size (3 miles) has passed near Earth in this century.
Wow! You mean to tell me it's the largest object to pass near here in over 3 years!!!
OK, one of those things that sounds impressive, then when one thinks a little, isn't all that big a deal...
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
what if we knew for sure we would be hit in 500 years? that's long enough to be none of our problems. so would people say "fuck them" and just leave it to some other generation to sort out, or be willing to pay for a huge programme to deflect/destroy it?
it's a similar problem to global warming, except there are no asteroid-impact-dependent business models funding research and laws like with oil.
... seems the sky missed us this time! ;)
I, for one, would like to welcome our new oven-roasted overlords...
Here's the proof. Free 27" flatscreen TV.
NASA's NEO (Near Earth Object) program tracks many different objects, though I wish they had a bigger budget, then they could handle even more.
You do realise surely that 1000 small asteroids is a lot better than 1 large asteroid, right? The effect of 1000 small chunks would be greatly reduced due to them burning up faster while descending through the atmosphere. Same total velocity my ass, i'm all up for air resistance.
That is quite the appropriate letter sequence for an asteroid that comes close to earth.
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
1000 pieces of a 3-mile asteroid are each 0.3 miles (0.5km) in diameter. The atmosphere is barely going to singe a rock of that size before it impacts.
Even if were blown to tiny pieces, that wouldn't help. Scientific American had a recent article that hypothesized that one of the worst parts of a big impact is the rebound of billions of tiny fragments into space, which then rain down all over the globe. Each one burns up individually, but the overall effect heats the entire atmosphere to hundreds of degrees, incinerating just about everything on the planet.
Sliced big or small, that much mass coming in from outer space would be a major problem.
Does anyone ever run trajectory calculations for a strike on the Moon, rather than Earth? And what size Moon strike would cause problems here? Could the moon eject a chunk in our direction sufficiently large to be a problem? For that matter, what would happen to the Moon in that situation?
Too many questions -- no idea of the impact (pun intended.)
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
Upon further consideration, I've come to the conclusion that if an asteroid that big did collide with the Earth ... the complete destruction of all life on the planet would be a small price to pay for finally getting rid of Microsoft.
(It's funny. Laugh.)
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