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Asteroid To Be Naked-Eye Visible In 2029
An anonymous reader writes "SPACE.com is reporting that asteroid 2004 MN4 will fly so close to Earth in 2029 that it'll be visible to the naked eye. Other than barely-visible Vesta, this is a first. And 2004 MN4 will be about magnitude 3.3 -- like a dim but easily visible star. A moving star in this case. You might remember 2004 MN4 is the one that sparked worry, in December, that it would hit Earth. No worries, NASA says, just a once-in-a-millennium sky show."
Remind me in 24 years, my memory isn't that great.
how they can predict that closely 24 years in advance. There's got to be some margin of error.
Also a good test for our naquadria-enhanced nuclear warheads =)
what do we want to land on it?
Large stable platform.
Within Earth orbit (mostly).
A (radio?) telescope?
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
My ride outta here, man. It's comin'.
What about Skynet? Are the evil robots just going to put their plan on hold so we can watch the asteriod? I don't know about you, but I would be much more concerned about the polished-chrome evil robots with freakin' lasers, if you know what I mean.
I'm still waiting to see Halley's comet for the second time in my life (1986 when I was 10) and hopefully in 2061 (I'll be.... 85). Why ruin the fun by seeing this mere asteroid?
Sure
+/- 1 Apocalypse
Two ideas to test in 2029 are (1) dumping a bunch of white paint on the asteroid from a passing nuclear-powered interplanetary missile and (2) 1 week later, detonate a nuclear warhead loaded on another interplanetary missile that will fly close to but will not impact said asteroid. We had better test these ideas on a safe asteroid instead of waiting for the day when an asteroid aimed at earth actually arrives.
Given the fact that engineering is not perfect, if we do not actually test these anti-asteroid technologies in advance, then we run the high risk of failure when we use them for the 1st time on an actual asteroid destined for earth. To my knowledge, very few engineering products work correctly on the first try. 'Tis better to be safe than sorry.
There are also shooting stars occurring quite often, more now with the space junk we've got floating up there. And there should be at least two comets, which are effectively luminescent asteroids, visible this year as well.
Just make sure you get away from light pollution if you want the best opportunity to observe these spectacles. About fifteen minutes in any direction out of town will do, and will make you think seriously about more serious astrology (you'd be surprised how much can be done with under $1000 of equipment!)
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
By the time 2029 comes along, light pollution will remove all detail in the night sky.
We had better test these ideas on a safe asteroid instead of waiting for the day when an asteroid aimed at earth actually arrives.
I have a differing opinion on what constitutes a safe asteroid. A mistake on this asteroid could potentially be just as devistating as a mistake on one destined to collide with us.
I'd rather poke a few asteroids that don't come within 22,600 miles of Earth.
Yep, no chance that could go horribly wrong.
Remind me to take a shuttle off-planet in case they get metric and English units confused again.
a. Give us an opportunity to explore techniques for redirecting asteroids.
b. Provide a test bed for asteroid mining techniques.
c. Become an orbiting space station.
d. Promote international cooperation.
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
No worries, NASA says, just a once-in-a-millennium sky show.
Sure, that's how all these things start. But then later there is running and screaming!
this is a first
once-in-a-millenium
My friend, if this was a once-in-a-millenium occurance, this would be classified as "a 4,600,000th".
Or if you be of the Christian faith, a 6th.
After 288 clicks on the little calendar thingy I was able to add this event to my Outlook Calendar.
Though I REALLY hope I don't still work here then.....
Will Outlook 2029 be able to read my old calendar by then?
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for the are subtle and quick to anger.
Are you kidding? If an asteroid really was going to collide with the Earth in 24 years to you honestly think NASA would pass up a funding opportunity like that? The adminstrators (and aerospace contractors) would all be doing their Happy Dance o' Money like they haven't done since the Apollo program.
And the brethren went away edified.
"If it passes within the orbits of geosynchronous satellites, what's the chance of it striking one of them? If it does, might it lose enough momentum to enter earth orbit?"
I don't think so, imagine a car hitting a shopping cart full of grocerys at 50MPH. The car's not going to go off it's path much (unless driver swerves to avoid basket)
Yes, but we better be prepared to defend from alian civilizations wanting to steal our roids.
If they want our roids, by all means let them take our roids.
Quite frankly, I've just about had it up to here *points at neck* with having to use with Preparation H.
Live forever, or die trying.
Hmm, how much delta-v/rocket fuel to slow up a large asteroid from 17 km/sec to orbital speed.. Quite a lot of fuel/engine is gonna be needed..
The only "cheap" (in terms of fuel) way of loosing all that velocity I can think of is diverting it so that it skims the Earths atmosphere for aerobraking/capture.. Fancy trying it?
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
This is BBC news, its Friday, April 13, 2029, we join Patrick Moore at Greenwich to report on the flyby of asteroid MN4 2004..
Its clearly visible now, around Magnitude 3..
Now brighter..
magnitude 2.. 1..
My Word! What a treat for all you Astronomy buffs out there!
Magnitude 0.. -1.. -2..
It is the Brightest object in the sky now, clearly moving against the background of stars..
Magnitude -3.. -4..
But should it be this bright? And is it starting to get warm? Whats..
(Transmission cuts)
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
I don't know about you folks, but I don't intend to let another full generation pass before we have basic things in place like a viable off-world colony and the ability to protect ourselves from the occasional ancient space-pebble.... I mean, come on. This will be a fun show but it's another sign from nature.....like aurora, meteor showers, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, the very tides themselves....that the Universe is a very dynamic place and we had damned well better be ready for unexpected, occasionally violent change in the 'world as we know it.' Right now the Bush-driven NASA agenda for the Moon and Mars has us just barely managing to get first boots-on-dirt/regolith by this timeframe (2029-2030) and exactly how often has NASA been on schedule with manned objectives in the past two decades or so (no offense my friends, I support your work 100%)??? As for the core objectives of humanity as opposed to politicians, achieving the lion's share of those goals seems mostly like to come from good ol' "private enterprise" in all its bizarre and wonderful forms. I would imagine that Burt Rutan has a few thoughts on these things....
That would strategically be the strongest move, yes.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
Rocket exhaust only has a nozzle speed of a few km/s, so to lose ~10 km/s you need to use considereably more than an asteroid-mass of rocket fuel. (I think the technical term is a "motherfuckload".)
So, unless we put a nuclear powered railgun (or maybe souped-up ion engine) on it and use bits of asteroid as reaction mass we aren't going to be capturing it. That tech will probably still be sci-fi in a couple of decades, sadly.
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I must have put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.
Ok, since it is on topic and I feel compelled to embarrass myself...
I spent some time in December when the asteroid hype began and designed a graphic. I hoped to cash in on the end of the Earth hysteria; however, within four hours of setting up the CafePress shop, scientists discovered old observations, recomputed the trajectory, and confirmed the miss - all but ending my dreams of tongue in cheek panic-profiteering.
So I present to you the design that might have been.
Enjoy
The GPS constellation orbits at about 20,000 km altitude, so they'll definitely be safe. The geosynchronous comsats are more vulnerable, but that's only significant if the asteroid were to approach in the equatorial plane. Since the equatorial plane is inclined about 23 degrees to the ecliptic, it's unlikely in the extreme that it would be able to hit a geosynchronous satellite.
Less is more.