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Astronomers Catch Asteroid In Near-Miss Video
ananyo writes in with a story about an asteroid near miss and a neat video taken by researchers. "It may look like a blurry blob, but researchers using the InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii have posted a video of 2012 KT42 — a small asteroid that zipped past Earth at a distance of just three Earth radii on 29 May — the sixth closest encounter of any known asteroid. The bright asteroid appears fixed, while background stars zip past but in fact the asteroid is zipping along at 17 kilometres per second. 'You get the view of riding along with it,' says planetary scientist Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who led the observations. At its closest, the asteroid was at a distance between the orbit of the space station (about 1 Earth radii) and geosynchronous satellites (about 6 Earth radii)."
Space station altitude is no where near 1 earth radius!!
I conjured up visions of a small asteroid that might have been a real big event if it collided. I am sure 23 feet in diameter would have made for a heck of a meteorite show. Thread to tremendous death and destruction on earth it isn't however. What is the official lower limit for an asteroid?
Radius is the single, radii is the plural. When it's only one, we use the singular.
1 kilometer, 1 liter, 1 metric fuckton. Or as people use across the pond, 1 miles, 1 gallon, 1 imperial fuckton.
You don't say 1 kilometers, 1 liters and you don't say 1 radii either.
Hence, it's 1 radius.
the asteroid was at a distance between the orbit of the space station (about 1 Earth radii) and geosynchronous satellites (about 6 Earth radii)."
How dumb do you have to imagine your audience to create non-standard units on every piece of news?
Also, with give such an imprecise distance as "between 6353km and 38118km"?
At least speed came in km/s instead of Sheppeis per Tatum grid.
It was only 7 meters across. No impending doom this time folks.
Near miss? Near hit, rather....
Here's a phrase that apparently the airlines simply made up: near miss. They say that if 2 planes almost collide, it's a near miss. Bullshit, my friend. It's a near hit! A collision is a near miss.
[WHAM! CRUNCH!]
"Look, they nearly missed!"
"Yes, but not quite.”
George Carlin
And the space station is some *20 times* closer to Earth than an earth radius. I must say I stopped reading here too.
Herve S.
As the Latin tag says, "Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius" (those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they send mad thinking about the plural of Prius".
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
You should be able to see meteor on any night if you look long enough.
Around August 12th the annual peak (Perseids) usually yields 1 visible meteor a minute to a keen observer.
The Leonids (Nov 17) peak every 33 years at 1000 meteors and hour (16 a minute).
If we are sending a manned mission to an asteroid, why not put a small unit on these asteroids, with carmera, drill, etc. and let it continue with the asteroid. The other idea would be to catch one and try to manuvuer it. By doing that, we can come up with ideas on how to take on one that will hit us, but also how to mine them.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.