Space Traffic Alert: 8 asteroids buzz Earth in just 3 weeks

This also wasn't the closest an asteroid has buzzed us this year: Asteroid 2017 GM passed about 900 miles closer in April.

But October has been a very busy month for natural space traffic around Earth. In addition to 2012 TC4 and 2017 UJ2, half a dozen other asteroids have flown within one lunar distance, or about 238,856 miles (384,402 km), of the only home we've ever known.

It's enough to make you thankful there are so many telescopes and astronomers keeping an eye on all those rogue space rocks up there, but we could still use more. Asteroid 2017 UJ2 is another case where it was first spotted in the cosmic rearview, a day after making its close pass.

CNET.com, Oct. 23, 2017 - Space traffic alert: 8 asteroids buzz Earth in just 3 weeks.

Whoa! We had another near miss!

I was over at spaceweather.com when I looked at PHA (potentially hazardous asteroids, ones that approaches earth's orbit). The list is the last item on the page. Scanning down the distance column (it is measured in "lunar distance", the mean distance between the earth and moon). One value jumped out, 0 LD!!! Wth??!!!

The object was called 2017 UJ2 and flew by earth on Oct. 25. The actual distance was 0.05 LD, or about 11,000 miles. The thing is we did not even see it until after it flew by. And that was after the Detection and Tracking effort by NASA was activated to track 2012 TC4

Seeing 0 LD... I thought we were going to be hit by something in the future (get my fix of doom porn! lol) not that it already flew by.

The object was only 2 meters but still. After Chelyabinsk any object coming in has the potential to do damage.

Makes me happy that the large objects are known and tracked by JPL (where spaceweather.com gets their info).

Figured I'd share as this was news to me!

Isn't part of the comet impact theory espoused by Hancock et al. Relative to our solar system passing through the Taurids? I'm trying to remember, isn't their supposition that we are passing through it either now, or perhaps soon?
This same phenomena being proposed as the harbinger of the lesser dryas and 10000bc extinctions?

Yeah, well, "only 2 meters" ... at the speed meteorites typically travel, any sized thing withstanding entry into the atmosphere has the potential to ruin a day near the impact point.

Here's hoping there really are ancient anti-asteroid weapons in Siberia, or a competent secret space force on patrol...

otherwise, one day, our collective luck will run out.

Sucks to be a one planet species.

Other terms: Asteroids refer principally to small, rocky bodies. A meteoroid is an asteroid or comet fragment that is between 10 microns and about 1 meter in size. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, its path is called a meteor or “shooting star.” If any of the pieces reach the ground, those pieces are called meteorites.

"The asteroid [at Chelyabinsk] was about 17 meters [56 feet] in diameter and weighed approximately 10,000 metric tons [11,000 tons]," Peter Brown, a physics professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, said in a statement. "It struck Earth's atmosphere at 40,000 mph [64,370 km/h] and broke apart about 12 to 15 miles [19 to 24 km] above Earth's surface. The energy of the resulting explosion exceeded 470 kilotons of TNT."

The explosion was pegged as 30 to 40 times stronger than the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

space.com - Chelyabinsk Meteor: Wake-Up Call for Earth.

A few terms that can be confusing. And a size comparison of Chelyabinsk at 17 M and 2017 UJ2 at 2 M.

a reply to: BlueJacket

The Taurids are an annual meteor shower associated with the comet Encke. They are named after their radiant point in the constellation Taurus, where they are seen to come from in the sky. Because of their occurrence in late October and early November, they are also called Halloween fireballs.

Wikipedia - Taurids.

Encke? Nah, that is just a coincidence, right? I mean, "Enki" the Sumerian god of creation and water. Just homophones! No portent of the rise and fall of humanity. I guess in one sense the "slaying of the bull" was supposed to get us out of "myth of angry sky gods" so that is a possibility.

There was also talk of 2030 when we could hit something and the same meteor shower.

As for Hancock, I do not remember if he said that directly or it was somebody else. That would be a research question for when I get home and can look it up.



ETA: Will also need to keep a watch on things like this to see if this activity is scaling up in size.

a reply to: Baddogma

"All your eggs in one basket" or in this case, "eggheads"!

And right when we seem on the cusp of technological greatness... yeah that would suck! And very un-eco-friendly as all our nuclear cores slowly eat there way to the center of the earth, hitting water tables, and exploding more radiation back into the atmosphere. (That is a TEOT doom porn scenario!).

I always wondered what the super big triangles were for. Maybe a few can hitch a ride. Not much to offer but some seriously depressing observations of man's foibles. And I can make beer!

Sooner or later, wham!

The only warning we will get beforehand is either seeing the sky light up or looking down and seeing two shadows of you, and one is moving.


Don't count on the gubment revealing an incoming impactor to everybody, thats not going to happen.

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Isn't part of the comet impact theory espoused by Hancock et al. Relative to our solar system passing through the Taurids? I'm trying to remember, isn't their supposition that we are passing through it either now, or perhaps soon?
This same phenomena being proposed as the harbinger of the lesser dryas and 10000bc extinctions?

Scientists have discovered a new branch of the Taurids meteor stream that could pose a major risk to Earth, with asteroids up to 1,000 feet wide flying past us every few years. The Taurids meteor shower peaks every October and November, producing a relatively small display of shooting stars as the planet passes through its stream. Meteor shower displays happen when tiny bits of cosmic debris enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the sky. Because the Taurids are made up of branches and a core, activity levels increase and decrease depending on how much debris Earth passes through.

www.newsweek.com...

Czech scientists say hidden asteroids could pose a threat to Earth

"Objects of tens or hundreds of meters in size pose a hazard to the ground," scientists warned in a new study.

Analysis of the new branch revealed the presence of at least two asteroids measuring between 650 and 100 feet in diameter. The authors of the new study hypothesize that the branch likely hosts even larger asteroids.

www.upi.com...

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Isn't part of the comet impact theory espoused by Hancock et al. Relative to our solar system passing through the Taurids? I'm trying to remember, isn't their supposition that we are passing through it either now, or perhaps soon?
This same phenomena being proposed as the harbinger of the lesser dryas and 10000bc extinctions?

Scientists have discovered a new branch of the Taurids meteor stream that could pose a major risk to Earth, with asteroids up to 1,000 feet wide flying past us every few years. The Taurids meteor shower peaks every October and November, producing a relatively small display of shooting stars as the planet passes through its stream. Meteor shower displays happen when tiny bits of cosmic debris enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the sky. Because the Taurids are made up of branches and a core, activity levels increase and decrease depending on how much debris Earth passes through.

www.newsweek.com...

Czech scientists say hidden asteroids could pose a threat to Earth

"Objects of tens or hundreds of meters in size pose a hazard to the ground," scientists warned in a new study.

Analysis of the new branch revealed the presence of at least two asteroids measuring between 650 and 100 feet in diameter. The authors of the new study hypothesize that the branch likely hosts even larger asteroids.

www.upi.com...

If a meteor the size of a pea hits you in the top of your head, you will hit the ground. These scientists do not appraise the situation, it can be a major catastrophy if even a small piece hits you.

A 2 meter iron bolide could possibly make it to Earth at cosmic velocity, if it entered around a 0 azimuth trajectory. However, anything this size coming in at an extreme oblique , shallow angle will most likely detonate, Chondritic or Iron, and the pieces, if any, will hit at terminal velocity. I suppose there are some rare exceptions, some actually skip off the atmosphere and go back out in space.

Biggest oblique detonation we know about is Tunguska, and the most recent near 0 azimuth impact was Barringer.
Chelyabinsk really showed us how important size, angle, speed and altitude really is.

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Isn't part of the comet impact theory espoused by Hancock et al. Relative to our solar system passing through the Taurids? I'm trying to remember, isn't their supposition that we are passing through it either now, or perhaps soon?
This same phenomena being proposed as the harbinger of the lesser dryas and 10000bc extinctions?

Scientists have discovered a new branch of the Taurids meteor stream that could pose a major risk to Earth, with asteroids up to 1,000 feet wide flying past us every few years. The Taurids meteor shower peaks every October and November, producing a relatively small display of shooting stars as the planet passes through its stream. Meteor shower displays happen when tiny bits of cosmic debris enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the sky. Because the Taurids are made up of branches and a core, activity levels increase and decrease depending on how much debris Earth passes through.

www.newsweek.com...

Czech scientists say hidden asteroids could pose a threat to Earth

"Objects of tens or hundreds of meters in size pose a hazard to the ground," scientists warned in a new study.

Analysis of the new branch revealed the presence of at least two asteroids measuring between 650 and 100 feet in diameter. The authors of the new study hypothesize that the branch likely hosts even larger asteroids.

www.upi.com...

If a meteor the size of a pea hits you in the top of your head, you will hit the ground. These scientists do not appraise the situation, it can be a major catastrophy if even a small piece hits you.

As charlyv pointed out in the post above, a small meteor that makes it through the atmosphere is slowed down to terminal velocity by air resistance.

The terminal velocity of a pea-sized meteor (given its very small weight and its round shape) would be less than 40 mph or 65 kmh. You might feel it, but it would probably not do serious unjury to you.

Here is a picture of a piece of the Peekskill Meteorite that in 1992 landed in Peekskill NY (hence the name). The rock, which is visible in the image, hit a parked car and did some damage. Please note that a heavy brick-sized rock will have a higher terminal velocity than a pea-sized rock would, and the mass of the rock would do greater damage, but the atmosphere would STILL slow the meteor down to terminal velocity. It would no longer be traveling at the incredible velocities it did when it was in the vacuum of space.

At terminal velocity, a brick-sized rock would do some damage (like the damage to the car we see in the image), but it's not the same sort of damage it would do at those space velocities. But yeah -- a pea-sized meteoroid (or even a rice-sized meteoroid) would easily kill you if they were traveling at the speeds they do through the vacuum of space

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

It kinda takes your breath away.

We're all here fighting each other and segregating over skin colours and whose 'word of God' matters most. All that crazy # humans do and millions of other life-forms and ecosystems getting by from one sunrise to the next. Tide goes up, tide goes down. Seasons change.

Boom, Kaboom or a bump and it all changes. It's that easy...

Possibilities like these make me want to believe in higher powers; we're too significant to be wiped out like the dinosaurs.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Possibilities like these make me want to believe in higher powers; we're too significant to be wiped out like the dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs were around for 200 million years. We smart primates have been around for maybe 4 million, and only about less than 1/4 million (about 225,000 years) in our current "homo sapiens" form....

...What I'm saying is that the dinosaurs were far more significant than us. Humans are newcomers to life on Earth. If the history of life on Earth so far were compressed to a single 24-hour day, we humans appeared at about 30 minutes to midnight.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Diversification.

Off-planet diversification. Space colonies, space stations, off-world everything. Like Baddogma said, right now we have all our eggs in one basket. A space rock comes crashing in and no more eggs!

Dinosaurs laid eggs too!

I don't know what I mean but it made me chuckle.

I've been pointing up for many years now. That is where we have to go. If we can do the DNA/RNA life extension, add tardigrade armor, hook a nuclear fusion rocket up to a Hull drive, heck, I'd go to the stars!

As a species, we really should be working together to solve our given lot in life. Right now we are monitoring the rocks. One day, we will have to be as clever as ever to move one out of the orbit path of the earth. I do not want "some last minute, boy did we get lucky" attempt. A full on, "this is the one and only time we have to do this" effort.

On the cusp of nuclear fusion. Full DNA manipulation. Cell growth. Making objects molecule by molecule. Figuring out ways of manipulating energy in manners only dreamt about in sci-fi. I can see it happening in less than 30 years.

Bomb or rock would be such a bummer.

"And some stupid with a flair gun, burnt the place to ground"

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Yeah, and if the geologic record is to be believed then a big rock falling from the heavens happens on a regular rate.

It is the rate that is the variable. Just because they are widely spaced does not mean one might come in sooner. Or one that was supposed to have come in previously is late.

I like our odds. And we are keeping watch (PDCO). But every now and then, like the asteroid from another solar system, something pops up.

Space and evolution are funny that way!

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Isn't part of the comet impact theory espoused by Hancock et al. Relative to our solar system passing through the Taurids? I'm trying to remember, isn't their supposition that we are passing through it either now, or perhaps soon?
This same phenomena being proposed as the harbinger of the lesser dryas and 10000bc extinctions?

Scientists have discovered a new branch of the Taurids meteor stream that could pose a major risk to Earth, with asteroids up to 1,000 feet wide flying past us every few years. The Taurids meteor shower peaks every October and November, producing a relatively small display of shooting stars as the planet passes through its stream. Meteor shower displays happen when tiny bits of cosmic debris enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the sky. Because the Taurids are made up of branches and a core, activity levels increase and decrease depending on how much debris Earth passes through.

www.newsweek.com...

Czech scientists say hidden asteroids could pose a threat to Earth

"Objects of tens or hundreds of meters in size pose a hazard to the ground," scientists warned in a new study.

Analysis of the new branch revealed the presence of at least two asteroids measuring between 650 and 100 feet in diameter. The authors of the new study hypothesize that the branch likely hosts even larger asteroids.

www.upi.com...

If a meteor the size of a pea hits you in the top of your head, you will hit the ground. These scientists do not appraise the situation, it can be a major catastrophy if even a small piece hits you.

As charlyv pointed out in the post above, a small meteor that makes it through the atmosphere is slowed down to terminal velocity by air resistance.

The terminal velocity of a pea-sized meteor (given its very small weight and its round shape) would be less than 40 mph or 65 kmh. You might feel it, but it would probably not do serious unjury to you.

Here is a picture of a piece of the Peekskill Meteorite that in 1992 landed in Peekskill NY (hence the name). The rock, which is visible in the image, hit a parked car and did some damage. Please note that a heavy brick-sized rock will have a higher terminal velocity than a pea-sized rock would, and the mass of the rock would do greater damage, but the atmosphere would STILL slow the meteor down to terminal velocity. It would no longer be traveling at the incredible velocities it did when it was in the vacuum of space.

At terminal velocity, a brick-sized rock would do some damage (like the damage to the car we see in the image), but it's not the same sort of damage it would do at those space velocities. But yeah -- a pea-sized meteoroid (or even a rice-sized meteoroid) would easily kill you if they were traveling at the speeds they do through the vacuum of space

To me, a major catastrophe is getting an eye knocked out.

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Isn't part of the comet impact theory espoused by Hancock et al. Relative to our solar system passing through the Taurids? I'm trying to remember, isn't their supposition that we are passing through it either now, or perhaps soon?
This same phenomena being proposed as the harbinger of the lesser dryas and 10000bc extinctions?

Scientists have discovered a new branch of the Taurids meteor stream that could pose a major risk to Earth, with asteroids up to 1,000 feet wide flying past us every few years. The Taurids meteor shower peaks every October and November, producing a relatively small display of shooting stars as the planet passes through its stream. Meteor shower displays happen when tiny bits of cosmic debris enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the sky. Because the Taurids are made up of branches and a core, activity levels increase and decrease depending on how much debris Earth passes through.

www.newsweek.com...

Czech scientists say hidden asteroids could pose a threat to Earth

"Objects of tens or hundreds of meters in size pose a hazard to the ground," scientists warned in a new study.

Analysis of the new branch revealed the presence of at least two asteroids measuring between 650 and 100 feet in diameter. The authors of the new study hypothesize that the branch likely hosts even larger asteroids.

www.upi.com...

If a meteor the size of a pea hits you in the top of your head, you will hit the ground. These scientists do not appraise the situation, it can be a major catastrophy if even a small piece hits you.

As charlyv pointed out in the post above, a small meteor that makes it through the atmosphere is slowed down to terminal velocity by air resistance.

The terminal velocity of a pea-sized meteor (given its very small weight and its round shape) would be less than 40 mph or 65 kmh. You might feel it, but it would probably not do serious unjury to you.

Here is a picture of a piece of the Peekskill Meteorite that in 1992 landed in Peekskill NY (hence the name). The rock, which is visible in the image, hit a parked car and did some damage. Please note that a heavy brick-sized rock will have a higher terminal velocity than a pea-sized rock would, and the mass of the rock would do greater damage, but the atmosphere would STILL slow the meteor down to terminal velocity. It would no longer be traveling at the incredible velocities it did when it was in the vacuum of space.

At terminal velocity, a brick-sized rock would do some damage (like the damage to the car we see in the image), but it's not the same sort of damage it would do at those space velocities. But yeah -- a pea-sized meteoroid (or even a rice-sized meteoroid) would easily kill you if they were traveling at the speeds they do through the vacuum of space

To me, a major catastrophe is getting an eye knocked out.

Agreed, but that doesn’t require a rock from space. A child throwing a rock can take your eye out.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

We could debate whether dinosaurs or humans are more significant all day.

I agree with you that they were here a long, long time. On the other hand, their time on Earth took them nowhere in terms of culture and innovation. Millions of years led to species diversity, but they might not have developed sentience or use of tools. In contrast, humans have an awareness of their place in the universe and have created literature, sciences and the arts. We alone can look through the lens of a camera we sent to Mars and see our own planet.

Call it sentiment and you won't be wrong. I think the universe, or our galaxy, will be poorer for losing humanity than it ever was for losing the dinosaurs. As expressions of the universe, we're the only life forms capable of documenting, describing, studying and exploring the place in a meaningful way. I know you get what I mean


a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Absolutely man

As far as we know, we're the only species in this galaxy that can admire a sunrise, write a poem about it and demonstrate how atmospheric refraction causes them. It ought to place the onus on us to preserve what we've learned and ensure we survive the expected catastrophes.

I can see it happening in less than 30 years.

I salute your optimism! I'm hopeful we have a Moon outpost before New Year 2099.

The Chicxulub impact occurred 66 million years ago when an asteroid approximately 12 kilometers (7 miles) wide slammed into Earth. The collision took place near what is now the Yucatán peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. The asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, a mass extinction that erased up to 75 percent of all plant and animal species, including the dinosaurs.
...

Research Letters showed Earth's average surface air temperature may have dropped by as much as 26 degrees Celsius (47 degrees Fahrenheit) and that sub-freezing temperatures persisted for at least three years after the impact.

ScienceDaily.com, Oct. 31, 2017 - Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact cooled Earth's climate more than previously thought.

A nice article with "real doom porn numbers"!

I cannot imagine a 7 mile rock slamming into the earth. The ground shakes all around the world. Then darkness... the Big Sleep. I wonder if everything caught on fire for a bit (like forests) before the sulfur and CO2 kicked in? Tsunamis and earth quakes, oh my! Then the cold set in. 75% of all life?!

A UFO and a time machine so I could munch popcorn at the moment of impact, please!

PS - An optimist? Nah, just want to see progress before I kick the bucket! Just looking at the pace of progress we teeter on that edge of a huge leap in human advancement. I just want to see that leap and wonder at what just happened.

Remember asteroid 2012 TC-4?

That object passed 0.1 lunar distances. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office "activated" the Asteroid Warning Network and began monitoring the object in April. This, like that neutron star merger, ran across multiple sites and countries. The work has been published so us pleebs get a science story.

Planning for the so-called "TC4 Observation Campaign" started in April, under the sponsorship of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The exercise commenced in earnest in late July, when the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope recovered the asteroid. The finale was a close approach to Earth in mid-October. The goal: to recover, track and characterize a real asteroid as a potential impactor—and to test the International Asteroid Warning Network for hazardous asteroid observations, modeling, prediction and communication.

phys.org - Astronomers complete first international asteroid tracking exercise. PS - Really cool animated GIF of TC-4 flyby.

The line that gets me is the one thing the head researcher was not prepared for: public attention!!

That is also a relief that not only are they (PDCO) tracking objects but there is a world wide network of instruments studying these NEOs.

It still doesn't mean "death by sky rock" is not possible but there is a growing database of known objects. I feel a little less doom porn-ish!!