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New Asteroid Becomes Earth's Biggest Threat

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the doooooommm dept.

inexion wrote to mention a story on PhysOrg stating that we're all doomed. "A space rock capable of sub-continent scale devastation has about a one in 1,000 risk of colliding with Earth early next century, the highest of any known asteroid, watchers said on Thursday. The rock, 2004 VD17, is about 500 metres (yards) long and has a mass of nearly a billion tonnes, which -- if it were to impact -- would deliver 10,000 megatonnes of energy, equivalent to all the world's nuclear weapons. Spotted on November 27 2004, VD 17 was swiftly identified as rock that potentially crossed Earth's orbit, with a 1 in 3,000 risk of collision on May 4 2102."

4 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Numbers And Pictures by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Informative


    For anyone interested in the hard numbers, here's NASA's impact risk summary of 2004 VD17.

    For those like myself who prefer pretty pictures, here's the 3D orbit diagram of 2004 VD17 (Java required).

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    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:Numbers And Pictures by qeveren · · Score: 3, Informative

      I guess you missed the part where it said:

      "This applet is provided as a 3D orbit visualization tool. The applet was implemented using only 2-body methods, and hence should not be used for determining accurate long-term trajectories (over several years or decades) or planetary encounter circumstances."

      --
      Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
  2. Re:So what do we do about this? by wpanderson · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm sure many people avoided Armageddon as much as they could; unfortunately I was one of those suckered in by the trailers full of blinkenlights and Liv Tyler shots. Damn you, Bruckheimer and Bay, damn you all to hell!

    As for the "science bit", Phil 'Bad Astronomy' Plait rips the movie to shreds quite succinctly, putting paid to the notion that it includes usable science. Read his review with spoilers, or if you're one of the lucky few never to have seen it, read the spoiler free summary. What would be "easier" would be to catch the object early and gradually change the orbit using electric ion engines or similar to nudge it out of our way.

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    neuro at well dot com (when I post, it's my opinions, no-one elses)
  3. My favorite is the "500 metres (yards)" comment by pbrammer · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think someone forgot the conversion number to put inside the parenthesis as yards does not equal meters at a factor of 1:1 ... Should've been, 580 metres (638 yards). Also, 500 is not correct as according to the JPL, the diameter is 580 meters.