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Small Asteroid On Collision Course With Earth
musatov writes "There's talk on The Minor Planet Mailing List about a small asteroid approaching Earth with a 99.8% probability of colliding. The entrance to the Earth's atmosphere will take place October 7 at 0246 UTC (2:35 after this story goes live) over northern Sudan, releasing the energy of about a kiloton of TNT. The asteroid is assumed to be 3-4 meters in size; it is expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere, causing no harm. As a powerful bolide, it may put on quite a show in the sky. For those advanced enough in astronomy to observe, check the MPEC 2008-T50 and MPEC 2008-T64 circulars. NASA's JPL Small Body Database has a 3D orbit view. The story has been already picked up by CNN and NASA."
I thought bodies this small were usually referred to as meteors. What's the difference?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Small asteroids that burn up in the upper atmosphere are far from uncommon. Why is this suddenly notable?
They become meteors *once* they start to interact with the Earth's atmosphere. Until that time, they are classified as space objects, and the names seem to change dependent upon size and approximate mass.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
It's an asteroid until it enters the atmosphere.
How we know is more important than what we know.
OK, fair point. I should have referenced meteoroids. But still, aside from a sensational headline, wouldn't this usually be classified as a meteoroid rather than an asteroid?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Bankers everywhere rejoice!
No worries,
2 hours gives CERN plenty of time to aim the LHC at the asteroid and obliterate it with a black hole.
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
Meteoroid/meteor: Any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere
Meteorite: A solid body that has arrived on the Earth or Moon from outer space. It can range in size from microscopic to many tons. Its composition ranges from that of silicate rocks to metallic iron-nickel.
Asteroids: Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are a class of astronomical objects. The term asteroid is generally used to indicate a diverse group of small celestial bodies.
... or you'll go blind and the next thing you know, you'll being devoured by a giant plant.
Instead, watch it through a pinhole cut into some cardboard.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
You're right. The Royal Astronomical Society has proposed a new definition where a meteoroid is between 100 Âm and 10 m across.
Would it matter?
and it wants revenge.
Small Asteroid Predicted to Cause Brilliant Fireball over Northern Sudan
A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere.
Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time.
Since it is such a small asteroid we can save some money. We don't need to send an all-star cast to blow it up, we only need to send one celebrity.
I suggest Bruce Willis, since we can save even more money not having to worry about the return trip.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
More likely they'll think it's a divine sigh that they're doing everything fine.
The next big one could come any time and kill us all. If it was really the end of the world would they let us know?
I sure that Slashdot would report it at least twice.
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
This is scary to me, not so much that a small asteroid is going to burn up and make a light show, but news of it comes out 24 hours before hand.
Would a body 10,20,100 or 1000 times the size be detected 24 hours before hitting us? Hell... 72 Hours?
Wouldn't this be an ideal opportunity to test out the theory of using a satellite's gravity to tow an asteroid away? Well, it's too late now, but I'm sure the research would be useful if we ever wanted to have a greater chance of avoiding potential disasters.
More specifically if it burns away completely BEFORE hitting the earth. If it burns up in the resulting explosion... :-(
One thing I've wondered, those small asteroids that hit the earth, say that land and are about the size of my fist, did those burn down to that size from a bigger size, or are there trajectories that it could land mostly without burning up. Like if it goes in at a really steep angle, could a rock the size of a basketball before it enters be about the size of a basketball when it lands, or is that pretty much impossible?
I realize this next question depends on a lot of factors, such as asteroid composition, angle of entry, and the answer to that last question, but if a rock landed in my backyard, again about the size of a basketball, what is the range of sizes before it entered that you would expect? Volkswagon? Semi truck? Seems like something that someone would have calculated.
Basically, I'm wondering if it's possible that a pea-sized meteorite could go flying through my head like a bullet.
a dog
Because the LHC failed at destroying us all, they sent this asteroid/meteor to finish us off. Seems like this will fail too.
signature is pants
It's an asteroid until it enters the atmosphere.
No, if it's less than 10 meters diameter it's only a meteoroid.
-- Alastair
Without the sensational headline, who would care?
The odds of it landing on you even if were tough enough to survive atmospheric entry are pretty remote.
The odds are astronomical, even! Hell, the odds are on a galactic scale! Why, the odds are so big, they make space look small!
Thank, you, thank you, I'm here all....Hey! What's with the giant hooooooooook....
My blog
And in other news, the asteroid was found to have large amounts of Naquadah in it.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
a small asteroid approaching Earth with a 99.8% probability of colliding
O-M-G We're all going to die! It's the end of the world! Run! Agh, forget that, you'll just die tired! I'm freaking out! I'm freaking out!
The asteroid is assumed to be 3-4 meters in size...
This has been a test of the emergency end of the world system. Has this been the actual end of the world you would have been given explicit instructions to bend over and kiss your ass good bye.
This concludes this test of the emergency end of the world system.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
If a comet is on the ground, we call it a glacier.
So then, would a big asteroid just be an aster? Or .... never mind.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Wrong, it's a meteoroid in space, a meteor in the atmosphere, and if any of it makes it to the ground, it's a meteorite.
It's never an asteroid because it's not big enough.
The next big one could come any time and kill us all. If it was really the end of the world would they let us know?
"They" is a nebulous concept that in this case includes tens or hundreds of thousands of professional and amateur astronomers across the globe. A big asteroid on a collision course with Earth would be noticed by many people as it got close, so I'd expect we'd all know about it.
Then once they've fully entered the atmosphere astronomers refer to them as "Cosmic World Destroyers." It's all very scientific.
LinkyLinky
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/meteorites.html
Well, call me a Washin'ton out-cider, don'cha know, betcha', shucks, all I gotta' do is wink and sure, by golly, that asteroid'll collide with Obama fer sure. 'Cause he's a terrist celebrity, by golly, gosh, so dangerous, and I'd like ta' ignore that question and talk 'bout energy.
Sincerely;
Sarah Palin
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
And at least the first report would come in only a few days after it happened!
Oh wait..
I stand corrected; had my oids, eors, and ites crossed.
"A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3..." "It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere..." Let's pretend that "few-meter-sized" means 3m in diameter, that the space rock is perfectly spherical and will hit the Earth's surface in one piece. Mass of asteroid = density*volume = (3000kg/m^3)*(4*pi*(1.5m)^2/3) = 28274.334 kg (Density data from an eyeball-average of table in http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/asteroid_masses) If it hits the surface at 12800m/s, then: Kinetic energy = .5*mv^2 = 2316233431638.683 J ~ 2316 gigajoules
1 ton TNT = 4.184GJ (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule), so the meteorite impact is roughly 553.6 tons of TNT.
Caveat emptor: many, many approximations.
A horrible violation of the laws of God and Man...
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
Asteroid is free, Meteor is expensive - costs anywhere from 50 to 99 MP to cast, depending on which FF you're playing.
I'd use an Asteroid over Meteor any day.
By recent definition this object should not be classified as an asteroid, but a meteoroid. Meteoroid is what the object is when travelling in space. Meteor is the visual phenomenon that you see as the object enters the Earth's upper atmosphere and frictional heating causes the surface of the object to melt and then form a plasma around the object. Meteorite is the remains of a meteoroid that entered the Earth's atmosphere and reached the ground.
It is entirely possible that this meteoroid -depending on its composition, stony, stony-iron, carbonaceous chondrite, or iron/nickel-iron and its velocity and angle of incidence to the Earth's atmosphere- could reach the ground and form a sizable crater. The accepted figure for crater size is roughly 25 times the diameter of the object at the time of impact with the surface. The Barringer Crater was formed by an object estimated to be approximately 50 meters across at the time of impact. If this object reaches the ground at one-half of its present estimated size, it could form a crater 35 to 50 meters across. It would be quite the show if one were within a mile or two of the impact.
Sig this!
So, a Dwarf Asteroid then?
Come play free flash games on Kongregate!
Then once they've fully entered the atmosphere astronomers refer to them as "Cosmic World Destroyers.".
But only for a short time.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
5% of the meteors are iron. Iron is both denser and darker than the far more common stony meteor which means if the asteroid is made of iron, it'll be bigger than expected because the size estimates are based on the amount of light the asteroid is reflecting. If it's iron, its higher density, combined with its larger size, will improve the odds that some remnants will make earth fall.
If it makes earth fall it'll be by far, the most valuable meteorite ever since it's the first asteroid whose arrival was predicted. It'll literally be money from Heaven for whomever finds a piece.
What difference will it make if you aren't a survivor, you have better odds of being sued by the **AA's than that.
Basically, I'm wondering if it's possible that a pea-sized meteorite could go flying through my head like a bullet.
Only if you try to change the past.
'Not big enough' sounds like another planet/not-a-planet argument with vaugely defined criteria.
There are some emails in my spam box that think they might be able to help it out ...
Yes they "burned down". Yes, there are trajectories that let things land without burning up. But they make for lousy shows, since it requires the rock to skim the outer atmosphere just deep enough to slow below escape velocity, and then slowly (over a period of months or years) lose enough more energy that they reenter permanently. If that happens, and if they're metallic, and if they're really extremely spherical (no hot spots other than the obvious one - out front), then maybe they can make it to the ground substantially intact. Odds - well, literally astronomical.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
size challenged asteroid
Update - 6:45 PM PDT (1 hour prior to atmospheric entry)
Since its discovery barely a day ago, 2008 TC3 has been observed extensively by astronomers around the world, and as a result, our orbit predictions have become very precise. We estimate that this object will enter the Earth's atmosphere at around 2:45:28 UTC and reach maximum deceleration at around 2:45:54 UTC. These times are uncertain by +/- 15 seconds or so. The time at which any fragments might reach the ground depends a great deal on the physical properties of the object, but should be around 2:46:20 UTC +/- 40 seconds.
T-750 and counting
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
What... the 'roid will dramatically increase the oxygen content of the planet? (insectoid respiratory systems are terribly inefficient, hence drastically limiting their size) ... ok, well that last bit kinda ruined the intended joke... except, I didn't think anyone would get it otherwise... *throws hands up in air in self frustration* ... btw, did it hit yet?
Don't get me started on the "if I was a god" thing... If I was a god you'd best get sacrificing some virgins and stuffs.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Oh crap, the fate of the earth depends on the accuracy of a slashdot summary?!?
We call them "shooting stars", and wish on them.
This one is a "collision asteroid" because it's good marketing for Star Wars "missile defense" gussied up for more recent Hollywood treatment like _Deep Impact_.
--
make install -not war
Asteroid, meteoroid or hemorrhoid; what does it matter? They're all a pain in the ass.
It doesn't matter whether it hits the ground in one piece, splits into fragments, or burns up entirely before impact. The energy release is the same; only the location and form of the released energy will vary. I was assuming that the OP meant 1 kton of energy dissipated as heat into the atmosphere. It's a weird unit of measure to use for anything that isn't a point explosion, though. Still, I wonder how much it takes to noticeably affect anything beyond a temporary light show—the weather, perhaps. Probably more than this meteor has, even with your higher figure, unless it hits the ground.
A kiloton scale impact is a once a month thing. The only interesting thing about this collision is that we detected the object in advance. All the other ones have hit without warning. A 20 kiloton impact is a once a year event. It's only when you get to 10 megaton events that you have to worry about any effects on the ground, (apart from people looking at the bolide being temporarily or permanently blinded).
Support SETI@home
That a meter(oid)/asteroid that gets this kind of press coverage would get a name more creative than "2008 TC3". Geez, the Greeks and Romans had that down thousands of years ago. What happened? Joey
And in the atmosphere it's called hail.
No. To be an aster it must be able to sustain nuclear fusion. Because "astera" is latin and means "star".
And yes: Asteroids are literally "star-like thingies".
At which point, all the dead will wake up, society will crumble, and then we'll have much more important things to worry about than what to call it.
Just saying, is all.
God is dead -- Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead -- God
Zombie Nietzsche lives! -- Zombie Nietzsche
You forgot:
D) Wakes up all the dead.
Which reminds me, I have to update my Zombie Action Plan.
God is dead -- Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead -- God
Zombie Nietzsche lives! -- Zombie Nietzsche
And an asteroid breaking in two would be two hemorrhoids?
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/asteroid-2008-tc3-hits-sudan/
"Violence is the last refuge of the competent, and, generally, the first refuge of the incompetent" - Thing_1
hemi-roid?
Karma: It's not just a good idea. It's the law.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news160.html
Confirmation has been received that the asteroid impact fireball occurred at the predicted time and place. The energy recorded was estimated to be 0.9 to 1.0 kT of TNT and the time of detection was 02:45:45 on October 7 (Greenwich Standard Time). More details on this detection will be forthcoming. An additional confirmation was apparently reported by a KLM airliner (see: (http://www.spaceweather.com). As reported by Peter Brown (University of Western Ontario, Canada), a preliminary examination of infrasound stations nearest to the predicted impact point shows that at least one station recorded the event. These measurements are consistent with the predicted time and place of the atmospheric impact and indicate an estimated energy of 1.1 - 2.1 kT of TNT.
Just in case anyone's still checking all the way down here...