Asteroid 2015 SZ2 Close Encounter with Earth Sept. 30, 2015

Just in..

www.express.co.uk...

Asteroid that could wipe out LONDON on course for hair-raising pass near Earth



So close it will be hair-raising! Not.. but thats what the article says.

I can't find any more info about SZ2. So if you do, please share.

If it's not closer than the moon, then I'm not going to worry.

Me neither.

I wonder if a TIAMAT scenario were to happen again... how much notice might we have?

a reply to: Milah
What kind of scenario?

Besides, the world's ending two days before this asteroid.../sarcasm

a reply to: Milah

The Express actually has a template article for this kind of stuff, they just change the asteroid name & distance but all the rest of the article stays exactly the same.

They also have one for winters except they change the year accordingly, it usually reads "coldest winter in a hundred years" or something like that and I don't believe they've ever got it right so far

a reply to: Milah

So hard to believe that all those big apocalyptic asteroids always miss us just by luck. Such an extraordinary precision can't remain without recognition forever. That mysterious power will claim retribution one day and I'm not sure if we can pay back.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
a reply to: Milah


They also have one for winters except they change the year accordingly, it usually reads "coldest winter in a hundred years" or something like that and I don't believe they've ever got it right so far

Correct, however they are always right because they always get it so wrong by use of a template..for just about any subject....right?
this was Monday's Express internet headline..same author/aka space cadet.
Massive comet on course to hit Slough two days after Blood Moon.
www.express.co.uk...

JPL Small-Body Database for 2015 SZ2

originally posted by: Trueman
a reply to: Milah

So hard to believe that all those big apocalyptic asteroids always miss us just by luck. Such an extraordinary precision can't remain without recognition forever. That mysterious power will claim retribution one day and I'm not sure if we can pay back.

Not nuking cities/villages/ecosystems up might be a healthy start

I know that we're always on the watch for the next asteroid that can threaten earth by crashing into it.

But are people also watching for an asteroid that could hit the moon? Surely an asteroid hitting the moon could have affects here on earth, including debris.

a reply to: Kuroodo

Funny you should bring that up...

If you go to the JPL Database (linked above by super moderator 'argentus'), and click on

"Close-Approach Data"

it takes you to a page with a chart which shows this object's yearly 'approaches' starting in 1939 -

If you scroll down, you will see that 2015 is the only year where the object's distance approaching the Moon is listed along with it's distance approaching the Earth...

I don't know how the whole thing works, and there's probably nothing to this, but it strikes me a bit odd that the asteroid is charted on approach to the Moon on Tuesday evening (Sept. 29th) and then on approach to the Earth less than 12 hours later (morning of the 30th)...
...why include the Moon on the chart just this one particular year?

1.3 Lunar distance does not a scare make.
One thick friggin hair.

originally posted by: Milah

So close it will be hair-raising! Not.. but thats what the article says.

I can't find any more info about SZ2. So if you do, please share.

whats the point of lying in the article. Would be a big benefit if some of these sites would be a bit less sensationalists. Sorry if this isn't the right word but hey THEY don't care about what they write neither.

either its a real a threat or not it is that simple.

a reply to: Milah

Its funny how they pick specific cities and yet people still read it. Couldn't it just as easily wipe out Dogfart, North Dakota?

originally posted by: dogstar23
a reply to: Milah

Its funny how they pick specific cities and yet people still read it. Couldn't it just as easily wipe out Dogfart, North Dakota?

LoL! It sounds like that place is already wiped out. Seriously, why does anyone buy The Express, even worse, why do they keep printing it?

a reply to: lostgirl

My take on this event is this: This is a non-event close flyby according to the extrapolations of JPL and NASA.

Do we know that's the case for certain? Could there be variables that would affect the validity of the data? Well, nobody knows for certain. JPL does a bang-up job of identifying and quantifying near-Earth objects, imo. They are the...
best of the best of the best......... Sir!

Is there wiggle room? I hope not.

a reply to: argentus

Love that movie! One of my favorites!!

Oh, and "The Quiet Man" as well! One of my favorite 'classic' movies


So, I get what you're saying about the asteroid, but I don't know how to 'read' that JPL chart info -
- would you mind putting it in 'layman's terms' ?...or better, 'dumb blond' terms

The moon will be Super, it's closest geo-positioning of the year, it's much larger then said asteroid..

I'm still not scared. Will be a pretty site though

a reply to: lostgirl

Saw that on ROKU

You aren't dumb, so I can't put it in those terms. You may be blonde. ;o) The OP said it right insofar as what is considered to be the nearest point of the asteroid to Earth -- 1.3 LD. That is, outside of the orbit of the moon. I have no reason -- nor the training -- to question the conclusions of JPL. They're been spot-on so far in the past. No reason to believe they aren't spot-on now.

It's just not written in stone.

That's really the delicious-anticipatory-wonderment of an incoming object isn't it? Great time to be alive.

originally posted by: Kuroodo
I know that we're always on the watch for the next asteroid that can threaten earth by crashing into it.

But are people also watching for an asteroid that could hit the moon? Surely an asteroid hitting the moon could have affects here on earth, including debris.

I remember wondering that same thing before and looked it up - and I've looked it up again. Perhaps surprisingly, it turns out it'd take a mighty big object, about the size of the moon itself, to cause a catastrophe. Even something as big as 600 miles across would hardly budge the moon if it hit it.

www.popsci.com...