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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.
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'.
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.
They've been tracking it for a while, and NASA has some pretty good quadrature software for numerical solutions to the N-body problem. I don't see any particularly precise figures in the summary anyway, and I'm not going to read the article, am I?
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.
Go look at this JPL press release. See the white line in the closeup view? That's the error on the position. If that white line intersected Earth, then there would be some probability that this asteroid would strike us.
They can predict these things through hundreds of observations from observers around the world. Through mathematical modelling they can calculate what the orbit is going to be. As more observations come in and as the forecast time comes closer the errors go down.
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.
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....