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Asteroid To Pass Near Earth On Monday
TigerNut writes "Asteroid 2011 MD was discovered on June 22 by LINEAR, and its flight path will take it within 8000 miles (12000 km) of Earth. Orbital predictions indicate that its flight path will be significantly altered by this close approach."
So as long as the asteroid is less than 8000 miles across, we should be fine?
John McAllister
I hope it takes out the comast HITS satellites
We're all going to die - repent!
Two more up and right of the one being discussed.
Sooner or later one of these things are going to hit us.
Quoting the fine article: "But there's no chance that the asteroid will hit Earth on this approach, and almost no risk at its next close approach, in 2022. If the asteroid did strike, it would probably explode in the upper atmosphere — a fine spectacle, but harmless."
Post tenebras lux. Post fenestras tux.
Right, because a golf ball that is about 1/150th the size of a human is exactly like hitting something (say, the Earth) with something that is 1/50,000,000th the size of it. The earth getting hit with a 25 foot object at fast speed is probably less like getting hit in the nuts with a golf ball and more like getting hit in the upper arm by a spec of sand.
Great quote for this article - It's always darkest just before the lights go out. -- Alex Clark
How about a 50 foot soap bubble?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Uhh, the damage to earth itself would be minimal. But have you forgotten that people live on the earth, however? I sure wouldn't want an object like that falling on my car, or my home, or into my pool, or onto my dog, or even onto myself. It would cause some pretty bad damage.
That's deceptively close, 8000 miles is the diameter of the earth. This thing is only gonna miss us by an earths width!
anubis did it!
How close to 8,000 miles is it really going to be? I realize that I am asking numerous questions, but seriously -- who can accurately verify the distance? What equipment is being used to calculate this whole thing?
How much would melt away in reentry? Objects that big have been caught on camera before and thankfully bounced off back into space. I would not want this to hit my house but if only 5 or 6 feet service it would not be a life altering event other than a big pop somewhere or splash. I believe the astroid that killed the dinosars was a quarter mile wide wasn't it? Now that would be devestating.
http://saveie6.com/
I appreciate your post. Particularly because it gives me a great idea to finish my screenplay of Caddyshack III: Spaceballs 2.
Cool story, bro.
Getting hit in the upper arm by a spec of sand might not hurt you, a human, but it would be devastating to a colony of microbes living on your arm in that spot.
We know that some of these objects are not very solid, but are loosely bound conglomerates of rubble. Is there any chance that this could brake into fragments due to tidal forces when it passes close to the Earth? Is there any information about it's composition?
Why is Snark Required?
It appears to be unresolved which impact crater was the one that killed the non-avian dinosaurs (the avian variety are still here: we call them "birds" now). However, the Chicxulub crater in Mexico dating from around that time was caused by a 6-mile wide asteroid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
A quarter-mile wide asteroid is nothing to sneeze at, and would probably destroy a city or worse, but isn't nearly as bad as this one which caused a giant cloud to cover the planet. Of course, the devastation of an asteroid depends on other factors besides its size, including its composition, angle of entry, and entry velocity.
An interesting idea (+1, nice day etc.). I wonder how deep within the flesh they would have to be to survive?
Animations Here are some nice animations of the path of the asteroid.
The rapture is coming June 27th! I have done the calculations myself and can say with absolute certainty that this is an accurate date.
This would be a prime opportunity to capture an asteroid and place it into a stable orbit so it can be harvested for raw materials for orbital construction projects, even if only as a proof of concept.
Ever done a belly flop into a pool? Now there is this strange thing called an atmosphere, it is made of stuff, and really to an object like that asteroid the atmosphere might as well be solid rock. The most your likely to get of this thing on the surface of the earth, is some super fine space dust.
Asteroid 2011 MD was estimated to be 25 to 55 feet which is in the "Local Damage" asteroid range whose impacts occur about 1 – 10 times per century.
BTW, that's "Local Damage" only if you're not local to the damage; else, it's lethal damage.
This object is 10 meters in diameter. "Asteroid 2011 MD, a chunk of rock estimated to be 25 to 55 feet (8 to 18 m) across, is expected to pass less than 8,000 miles above Earth's surface around 1 p.m. EDT (17:00 UT) on Monday, June 27th." -form source.
The logical demarcation between meteoroid and asteroid http://goo.gl/Ws6xp “adopt 10 m as the dividing line for an object to be considered to be either an asteroid or a meteoroid...natural objectsolidlarger than 100 micro m” -Martin Beech and Duncan Steel, U of W Ontario, On the Definition of the term ‘Meteoroid’
Obviously, this object doesn't definitely qualify as an asteroid because it's debatable if alien spacecraft are "natural".
(||) Nehmo (||)
I know I wasn't the only one to appreciate the importance of that last bit. You know, the part about it's path being deviated significantly as a result of it's close pass by Earth? What about the next time it comes around?
According to the Discover Article (http://news.discovery.com/space/visualizing-asteroid-2011-md-zip-past-earth-animation-110624.html), this is within the orbit of GPS satellites. While it seems most are not concerned about a collision with Earth, what happens if it takes out a satellite (or two)? Or something worse like colliding with the ISS. I hope there are some observation satellites than can a good view of the approach (and/or pass).
Feel free to write "12 Mm".
How about we wait to calculate the next closest approach until after it's left Earth's gravity well. I know our understanding of spatial dynamics is pretty much complete (between Newton and Kepler, we have almost all the knowledge we need), but we've only known about this thing for, what, 3 days? Also, there's the whole "Orbital predictions indicate that its flight path will be significantly altered by this close approach" thing, which tells me we aren't 100% sure which way this thing will be leaving our neighbourhood. I don't want to be thinking that we won't be seeing this thing until 2022 when it comes a knocking in 2020.
dust masks, and flashlight batteries in university towns over the next few days
So as long as it doesn't hit Earth's nuts, everything should be all right. Right?
But seriously. Sure, the energy of the impact depends on mass and speed. And hence also the damage done. And if we were talking about an asteroid of 25 miles across, I'd certainly go and spend my money on some fun before it's all over.
The possible damage an object can have on impact depends on three things: Speed, mass and volume. Now, 7.5m across (that's 25ft in SI units) isn't even a pebble on the stellar scale. Still, if accelerated to speeds beyond 0.1c and having a mass of 7+ g/cm we'd be facing quite a threat (according to this it seems the average density is closer to 1-3 g/cm, though). Since the pebble is affected by Earth's gravity, enough to change its course, my guess is that the kinetic energy (which, again, depends on mass and velocity) is fairly low. An impact would certainly be noticeable, no doubt about that, and it would also most likely not be pleasant to live right where it comes down. But I guess we'll have to look elsewhere for the big killer of 2012.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Heh I thought you were going to recommend a chiropractic adjustment for a moment there.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, actually, I do. Do you? To make your golf ball example a little more realistic, cover your groin with about a foot of bubble wrap and repeat your experiment. Can you feel the golf ball now? No? Nor would the earth feel the impact from the asteroid, as it would explode and burn up way, way, way up high in the upper atmosphere. The effects on the earth would be essentially nil.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Whenever you hear something like this, the headline is always "Asteroid to Pass Within XXX of Earth!!!"
The first things I want to know are not the distance, but its size and velocity. Because those tell me how hard they better work on knowing the exact distance.
Zim can use Mars as a bulldozer.
I for one welcome our new zombie overlord masters.
This is why the oximoronic term "astronomically small" has been coined.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_large_numbers
Brrr
Of course that's what they said.
Consider this. If they *know* it's going to hit the Earth, and even estimate about where it will hit, there are three choices.
1) Tell the truth and say "It's going to hit here at this time, with the effective energy of X atomic bombs" (I love that SI unit). People will panic. You wouldn't get any sort or orderly evacuation. Imagine if it were to hit near a metro area in the US. Millions of people would be displaced, even if it's only temporary. Now, what if they were off by a couple hundred miles? Aw shit, sorry guys, we were wrong. You evacuated to the impact site. Doesn't matter much, since you're dead.
2) STFU and don't say anything. Always a good choice, except amateur astronomers will likely spot it too. Again, when that makes the news, there will be mass panic, and an abundance of bad intelligence on the impact location, strength, etc.
3) Say "Don't worry, it'll miss us." If that ends up being true, there is no mass panic. No evacuations. No looting, robbing, raping, or pillaging. Life goes on as boring as ever. If it does hit, they can say "Oops, sorry". I'm sure that would be accompanied with a detailed explanation of how they were unable to calculate for some unknown like a freak solar flare or something.
As someone else pointed out, they said it'll miss by about 12,000 kilometers. That sounds safe until you consider that the distance from the Earth to the Moon averages about 384,000 kilometers. Or how about this, the object is going to pass through Geostationary Orbit (GEO) twice (once coming, once going), and at least into Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). It won't be a danger to the ISS, who sits far below that. There are plenty of satellites floating around in MEO and GEO.
It's doubtful an object the size of that asteroid would intersect with a satellite, but it is a risk. That could result in extra space debris, or a rather uncoordinated reentry of a satellite or other "parked" space junk.
So, it's not just going to pass by harmless through empty space. It's going to pass through space where we have a bunch of shit laying around.
Myself, I'm not worried. It's a small rock that has a small risk of hitting the Earth or something close by. I won't discount the possibility that a fast moving rock may hit us very hard and very fast, but if it does, there isn't much we can do about it anyways. If it does hit us an cause an ELE, I'll work on what to do from there. With any luck, it won't crash through the roof of my office, and onto my desk. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
There are 3 asteroids in that picture if you look to the right of the one the arrow points out.
Have you ever had a golfer hit a golf ball into your penis and scrotum? Have you?
Okay I'm not so worried about a small asteroid that will burn up in the atmosphere, but if you're telling me some goofy alien with a wicked sense of humour is aiming for my nutsack, you have my attention!!!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Sounds like it's practicing. I think we should nuke it, just to be sure.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
have you ever tried orbitting an asteroid? Nuking it just to be sure is going to be HARD!
People, what a bunch of bastards
Looks like APK escaped Hutchings again.
BTW, APK, and I I hate to have to tell you this, you have the absolutely most annoying writing style I've ever encountered, bar none. It's a combination of awkward/stilted construction, odd grammar, weird typos and strange emphasis that completely obviates any points you are trying to make, though those are often difficult to extract from within the crazy.
It does not necessarily pass through GEO. GEO is also defined as over the equator specifically, and it is rather unlikely that the asteroid will happen to be above that point when it crosses the proper altitude.
"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations..." -Winston Churchill
Yes. Yes, we have. Orbited an asteroid, that is, not the nuking bit. And we'll do it again next month. Of course, these are much, much bigger hunks of rock.
".yzarc eht nihtiw morf tcartxe ot tluciffid netfo era esoht hguoht ,ekam ot gniyrt era uoy stniop yna setaivbo yletelpmoc taht sisahpme egnarts dna sopyt driew ,rammarg ddo ,noitcurtsnoc detlits/drawka fo noitanibmoc a s'tI elyts gnitirw gniyonna tsom yletulosba eht evah uoy , siht uoy llet ot evah ot I I nda ,KPA ,WTB .niaga sgnihctuH depacse KPA ekil skooL: - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 26, @06:47AM (#36575090)
"???"
HEY - Can someone get me a translation please... lol!
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I don't think the ac troll replier understood the articles showing the APOPHIS asteroid possible on collision course with Earth in the future and that it is much larger than this one coming Monday...
Plus, I certainly do NOT understand his answer, lol, quoted above...
(That's because it must be off topic trolling then, based not on the subject @ hand, but rather probably effete "writing style critiques" from someone lacking a PHD in English proving they're an "expert" in that area, and their opinion (not even that, pure trolling) & the like - one of the "last resorts of trolls", lol)!
APK
P.S.=> All I know is, that many people would probably disagree with any 'writing style critiques' off-topic & have, per this partial list of my posts being modded up 100++ times or more here, so... OPINIONS VARY & he'd be outnumbered with proof, 100++:1 odds also:
Roughly 100++ of them & I post as AC (hard to get even +1, as /. hides our posts & we "AC"'s start @ ZERO/0 points, unlike registered "lusers", lol!):
+5 'modded up' posts by "yours truly" (5):
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1901826&cid=34490450
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1872982&cid=34264190
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=175774&cid=14610147
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1806946&cid=33777976
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1884922&cid=34350102
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+4 'modded up' posts by "yours truly" (4):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=161862&cid=13531817
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=167071&cid=13931198
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1290967&cid=28571315
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=158310&cid=13263898
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+3 'modded up' posts by "yours truly" (5):
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=155172&cid=13007974
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=166850&cid=13914137
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=175857&cid=14615222
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=273931&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=20291847
http://it.slashdot.org/comm
Is somewhere between South America and Antarctica.
Probably a good place to watch it would be in Atacama desert, but sadly its going to be in plain daylight.
Probably still pissed with his demotion and wants a fly-by.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Right. The earth might not care much, but the insignificant organic beings living at the impact site might not enjoy it.
Do you understand the basic laws of physics? I suspect that you don't, so let me simplify this situation for you.
go fuck yourself.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
..if the asteroid comes in the moment the Mount Everest is there, it would be only be 3152 metres (or 1959 miles) away from us.
Do somebody knows where on earth the asteroid comes by?