NEO close range fly-by

A NEO just flew past Earth, at a range of only 53,000 miles. It was detected only one day prior to the fly-by.

link

This NEO is said to be about twice the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013.

Another near miss, with very little warning...

a reply to: Vroomfondel

Wonder how long it will be until "the one" hits,

you would think this would be a major concern for all of humanity to get as much eyes in the sky, as any decent size one could be a city/country/world killer,

shamefully, people would rather invest in new phones, and equipment that's built for the dump.

maybe we are doomed

a reply to: Vroomfondel

Someone managed to capture it on their telescope..

www.virtualtelescope.eu...

originally posted by: Chadwickus
a reply to: Vroomfondel

Someone managed to capture it on their telescope..

www.virtualtelescope.eu...

That tracking telescope is something else!

a reply to: smurfy

I've developed software to do that kind of tracking of near earth asteroids with GOTO telescopes, but apparently I can't talk about it here since every time I try I end up getting hit with post removals.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel

Another near miss, with very little warning...

Well, before we had the ability to find most these at all, there were many more near misses that we knew nothing about (nor ever knew about).

So I suppose one day's notice is an improvement?....maybe?? Or is ignorance bliss?

originally posted by: ngchunter
a reply to: smurfy

I've developed software to do that kind of tracking of near earth asteroids with GOTO telescopes, but apparently I can't talk about it here since every time I try I end up getting hit with post removals.

Why are your posts removed?

originally posted by: Phatdamage
a reply to: Vroomfondel

Wonder how long it will be until "the one" hits,

you would think this would be a major concern for all of humanity to get as much eyes in the sky, as any decent size one could be a city/country/world killer,

shamefully, people would rather invest in new phones, and equipment that's built for the dump.

maybe we are doomed

The small city/town that gets taken out will never know what hit them. It's bound to happen, either tomorrow or thousands of years from now, although you'd think they'll have something to detect these smaller NEOs before then.

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: ngchunter
a reply to: smurfy

I've developed software to do that kind of tracking of near earth asteroids with GOTO telescopes, but apparently I can't talk about it here since every time I try I end up getting hit with post removals.

Why are your posts removed?

Certain conspiracy theories on here are protected from getting thrown in the skunk works trash bin, and if you post evidence that directly contradicts them and offends their proponents, you're in hot water fast. The mods and I don't get along either. Just watch, any minute now one of them will be complaining about this post.

a reply to: ngchunter

Just post it in one of the political forums and it should be safe. Make sure you mention Hillary and Trump a lot though so it gets by any filters..

originally posted by: ngchunter
a reply to: smurfy

I've developed software to do that kind of tracking of near earth asteroids with GOTO telescopes, but apparently I can't talk about it here since every time I try I end up getting hit with post removals.

And I have no doubt that it's incredibly impressive, just like everything you show.

originally posted by: Phatdamage
a reply to: Vroomfondel

shamefully, people would rather invest in new phones, and equipment that's built for the dump.

maybe we are doomed

I don't undersrand. You want everybody to invest in telescopes and keep an eye on the sky for NEOs .

I agree we should dedicate more time and money to this that but what you mentioned has nothing to do with it.

a reply to: Phatdamage

I guess it's all about perspective and levels of optimism.

On the one hand we can point at previous killer impacts and imagine one is out there, right now, with 'Planet Earth' written on the address label. Potentially a few days notice followed by an extinction level event.

On the other hand, we've had untold near misses and here we are. Maybe Tunguska would have changed our measure of perceived danger is it had exploded above Moscow, mid-Europe or northern USA? As it stands, it looks like a very outside risk as we've been waking up each day for centuries now with the world intact.

It's scary to imagine a big impactor and not imminent enough to justify more funding.

originally posted by: ngchunter

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: ngchunter
a reply to: smurfy

I've developed software to do that kind of tracking of near earth asteroids with GOTO telescopes, but apparently I can't talk about it here since every time I try I end up getting hit with post removals.

Why are your posts removed?

Certain conspiracy theories on here are protected from getting thrown in the skunk works trash bin, and if you post evidence that directly contradicts them and offends their proponents, you're in hot water fast. The mods and I don't get along either. Just watch, any minute now one of them will be complaining about this post.

Quite a broad generalisation there. You've been on my friends list for years and never had a sharp word. I've no idea why you wouldn't be able to talk about your astrophotography or discuss tracking NEOs.

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: Phatdamage
a reply to: Vroomfondel

Wonder how long it will be until "the one" hits,

you would think this would be a major concern for all of humanity to get as much eyes in the sky, as any decent size one could be a city/country/world killer,

shamefully, people would rather invest in new phones, and equipment that's built for the dump.

maybe we are doomed

The small city/town that gets taken out will never know what hit them. It's bound to happen, either tomorrow or thousands of years from now, although you'd think they'll have something to detect these smaller NEOs before then.

That is what gets me. With so many eyes watching it was practically here before anyone noticed. Not much of a warning at all had it been on a collision course. Although, I wonder if TPTB would bother to warn us at all. Then they would have not only the impact to deal with but the panic beforehand. I hate to say it, but I think they would just let it hit and deal with it afterward.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: Phatdamage
a reply to: Vroomfondel

Wonder how long it will be until "the one" hits,

you would think this would be a major concern for all of humanity to get as much eyes in the sky, as any decent size one could be a city/country/world killer,

shamefully, people would rather invest in new phones, and equipment that's built for the dump.

maybe we are doomed

The small city/town that gets taken out will never know what hit them. It's bound to happen, either tomorrow or thousands of years from now, although you'd think they'll have something to detect these smaller NEOs before then.

That is what gets me. With so many eyes watching it was practically here before anyone noticed. Not much of a warning at all had it been on a collision course. Although, I wonder if TPTB would bother to warn us at all. Then they would have not only the impact to deal with but the panic beforehand. I hate to say it, but I think they would just let it hit and deal with it afterward.

Yep. Plus it would be a convenient excuse to impose Martial Law. They wouldn't even have to create a fictitious 'false flag' event. It would be a built-in excuse to capitalize on a natural event. Once one small NEO would hit, they could just say there's a chance we could be under a small NEO shower, they are too small to be detectable, we are now taking over for everyone's protection. There you have it.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel

That is what gets me. With so many eyes watching it was practically here before anyone noticed. Not much of a warning at all had it been on a collision course.

These are tiny and very very difficult to detect, even when actively looking for them.

That's why when we are NOT actively looking for them, so many have (almost certainly) gone totally undetected. It's not like there are just now NEOs at coincidentally the same time we start looking for them; in reality, there has almost surely been a constant number of these flying past Earth for millennia now, but have gone unnoticed and undetected -- even the ones that fly past this closely.

That's an indication of how hard it is to find these things. The fact that there have been probably so many that sailed past 50,000 +/- miles from Earth and were NEVER seen and whose existence were NEVER determined, even though people have had telescopes for centuries.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel
Although, I wonder if TPTB would bother to warn us at all.

It's not TPTB that look for NEOs, though, it's the astronomers, both professional and amateur. When one of them finds a potential impactor, rest easy that they will anounce it to the world.

A good case in point - 2008 TC3. It was discovered less than 24hrs before it impacted Earth, and anounced to the astronomy community right away. In total, 586 astrometric and almost as many photometric observations were performed by 27 amateur and professional observers in less than 19 hours and reported to the Minor Planet Center, which issued 25 Minor Planet Electronic Circulars with new orbit solutions in eleven hours as observations poured in.

a reply to: wildespace

It should be noted that this asteroid was indeed discovered by the SONEAR observatory, a privately-funded amateur effort. If it had been on an impact course, amateurs would precisely have been the first to know about it.

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: Vroomfondel
Although, I wonder if TPTB would bother to warn us at all.

A good case in point - 2008 TC3. It was discovered less than 24hrs before it impacted Earth, and anounced to the astronomy community right away. In total, 586 astrometric and almost as many photometric observations were performed by 27 amateur and professional observers in less than 19 hours and reported to the Minor Planet Center, which issued 25 Minor Planet Electronic Circulars with new orbit solutions in eleven hours as observations poured in.

Fascinating