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Small Asteroid Discovered Orbiting Earth (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the quasi-moon dept.

Frosty Piss writes from a report via CNN: A small asteroid has been found circling Earth. Scientists say it looks like the asteroid, named 2016 HO3, has been out there for about 50 years. Calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth's companion for centuries to come. Scientists think the asteroid is between 120 and 300 feet (37 to 91 meters) in diameter, and NASA says it never gets closer than 9 million miles (14 million kilometers) from Earth. It was found on April 27, 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii. So how do we miss a 300 foot object that has been orbiting the Earth for around 50 years? Probably the same way we've missed all the flying saucers!

12 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. To put it into perspective by shockwaverider · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's about 37 times further away than the moon. Pretty far away in other words.

    Wonder if it would be a candidate for the first asteroid mining venture?

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    1. Re:To put it into perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Never is such a long time.

    2. Re:To put it into perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You have a limited imagination. Soon or later humans are going to have to leave this planet or face extinction. At some point moon bases will exist, land there will have value as the uber rich make their claims, resources will be needed. Metals and minerals are surrounding us, those on Earth are being wasted and will become rarer. Fast forward a million years... You can do the rest.

      Perhaps you're mistaking this site for reddit or the daily mail, where attention spans are measured in atto-seconds, and the future doesn't exist beyond the next celebrity tit/ass selfie.

    3. Re:To put it into perspective by Kokuyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Jeez, what a surefire way to be wrong you've chosen. Others already commented on the infinite time frame you've chosen but I'd like to add that "cost effective" is pretty relative.

      There just needs to be a shortage of material found on an asteroid that is either life threatening or lowers our quality of life enough for people to decide they're going to try it.

      And why should this never be cost effective? Robotic mining equipment needs to be deployed once. And without much gravity to speak off, all you need to do is launch the mined material in the direction of a desert every few days.

      Can't be that hard to accomplish.

  2. 50 years, century... by flyingfsck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So is it 50 years for small values of a century, or is it a century for large values of 50 years?

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  3. So how do we miss a 300 foot object that has been by cerberusss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So how do we miss a 300 foot object that has been orbiting the Earth for around 50 years?

    We weren't looking for that particular object.

    Also, space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

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  4. You might refer to it as as asteroid... by Serif · · Score: 5, Funny

    We prefer the term "Mother Ship"/

  5. Re:because ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And it's fucking tiny.

    Let's put some numbers on this. The average grain of coarse sand is 2mm in diameter, so a grain of coarse sand a kilometre away occupies an arc of 115 millionths of a degree. A 37m rock 14 million km away occupies an arc 151 millionths of a degree, very much the same ballpark.

    So spotting this thing would be like trying to see a cold, dark grain of sand from a kilometre away, at night. Good luck with that.

  6. 3e-09 radians, 5e-19 stradians. in just 50 years?? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Quick mental calculation shows that object is subtending 3e-09 radians at Earth. Need back of the envelop for solid angle. About 5e-19 stradians if it its a ball 300 feet across. Give or take a few orders of magnitude.

    Now the question is not "how come we missed it for 50 years?". The question is "how come we found it in just 50 years! OMG our astronomers are awesome!".

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  7. Re:because ... by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Funny

    And it's fucking tiny.

    Let's put some numbers on this. The average grain of coarse sand is 2mm in diameter, so a grain of coarse sand a kilometre away occupies an arc of 115 millionths of a degree. A 37m rock 14 million km away occupies an arc 151 millionths of a degree, very much the same ballpark.

    So spotting this thing would be like trying to see a cold, dark grain of sand from a kilometre away, at night. Good luck with that.

    All you need is a good torch, sorry flashlight, and a telescope. Hardly rocket science.

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  8. Fucking CNN by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Learn to fucking report. The asteroid orbits the Sun not the Earth. It's not a moon nor satellite. It's best described as a companion because the asteriod and earth follow SIMILAR ORBIT around the sun. Nothing more. Just read the JPL article: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/n... Fuck off CNN.

  9. Re:because ... by cellocgw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because the algorithms governing orbital progression are very well known. You watch the thing for a while , fit its path to the function, and run time in reverse (JUST IN THE SIMULATION) to see where it came from.

    Heck, it's been decades since amateur astronomers did this with Soviet satellites and discovered the launch sites before the CIA did.

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