Super Bowl 2018: Watch This Asteroid Hurl By Earth Just Hours Before Kickoff

Super Bowl 2018: Watch This Asteroid Hurl By Earth Just Hours Before Kickoff
www.forbes.com...

Just a few hours before Super Bowl 2018 kickoff a "potentially hazardous" asteroid will hurl past Earth, providing an astronomical pre-game show. The asteroid will be closest to Earth at 4:30 p.m. EST on Super Bowl Sunday, traveling at a speed of 76,000 MPH, just a tad smidge than Tom Brady throws the football.

NASA has labeled this asteroid as "potentially hazardous" since it meets both criteria of wider than 500 meters and within 4.65 million miles of Earth. However, NASA has assured us that there is zero chance that the asteroid will collide with Earth hours before Super Bowl 2018.

NASA estimates that the asteroid is somewhere between 0.3 and 0.75 miles wide and was discovered over 18 years ago on January 15th, 2002. After tracking the asteroid for over a decade the federal agency confidently stated:

"Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance - zero - of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."

Okay, so February 4th around 4:30PM EST I will have my beer, hotdog and hopefully wearing sunglasses (if it is sunny) and focus on skywatching. Heck it would be sweet if I could take some video or pictures and post it on ATS...looking forward to this pre-game show

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

Good news is if it comes too close Brady will be there to throw a football at it and change the trajectory. I fully believe he could do that.

a reply to: Vector99

LOL...I could see the football go swirling in a loop hard left while the wide receiver going hard right...that said, this is happening BEFORE the game so unfortunately we cannot view the experiment.

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

If there is “zero chance” that the asteroid will collide with Earth, then why is it categorized as “potentially hazardous”? Any hazard potential should mean that there is a greater than zero chance, would it not?

a reply to: Vector99

Only if the asteroid is deflated first.

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: Skywatcher2011

Good news is if it comes too close Brady will be there to throw a football at it and change the trajectory. I fully believe he could do that.

TWEEEEEET! Ineligible receiver. Number AJ129. 15 yd. penalty. Repeat Armageddon.

a reply to: Monsieur Neary

I would have to agree with you on that one... Seems silly to me too.

"Within 4.65 million miles of Earth".

So, that makes something coming within 4.6 million miles as potentially hazardous.... But why tho? Could we potentially have several volcanos blowing at the same time on the same side of the planet, forcing the orbit of Earth to drastically change resulting in a violent collision?

a reply to: Thorneblood

Yeah, and especially if the asteroid is covered with tear stained, sore losers....

originally posted by: Monsieur Neary
a reply to: Skywatcher2011

If there is “zero chance” that the asteroid will collide with Earth, then why is it categorized as “potentially hazardous”? Any hazard potential should mean that there is a greater than zero chance, would it not?

Ever play billiards? Notice if one ball hits another while in motion the path of the moving ball is changed? I guess everything is potentially hazardous.

originally posted by: Monsieur Neary
a reply to: Skywatcher2011

If there is “zero chance” that the asteroid will collide with Earth, then why is it categorized as “potentially hazardous”? Any hazard potential should mean that there is a greater than zero chance, would it not?

PHA's have a very specific and automatic definition regarding how close their orbit gets to earth's orbit. Size is an additional factor; dimmer than absolute magnitude 22 (correlates to about 130~250 meters in size) it's not considered a PHA.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids: NEAs whose Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) with the Earth is 0.05 au or less and whose absolute magnitude (H) is 22.0 or brighter.

cneos.jpl.nasa.gov...

It's just a way of triaging which asteroids are most important to collect observations on. All other things being equal, you want to be sure to get enough observations of a PHA to firm up the orbit over non-hazardous asteroids. When they're newly discovered their long term trajectories are too uncertain to say with confidence what the future impact risk will be.

originally posted by: dothedew
I would have to agree with you on that one... Seems silly to me too.

"Within 4.65 million miles of Earth".

I don't care, we should still send Ben Affleck to meet it.

Tom Brady had the asteroid slightly deflated, ensuring an inaccurate trajectory...

He saved the planet.

Unfortunately, the proof of his humanity saving action was on a cell phone... now missing...

When hilary lost to trump!
she has a rocket sent to This Asteroid to slowly push it.
so it would Hit the Super Bowl.
I hope they Have a Very good catcher!
LOL !

it would be Just what she! needs now.

originally posted by: Monsieur Neary
a reply to: Skywatcher2011

If there is “zero chance” that the asteroid will collide with Earth, then why is it categorized as “potentially hazardous”?

Because its orbit will eventually bring it close to Earth again, and again, and again in the future. One of those close approaches might prove a bit too close. en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

I've already set that date Feb 4th, 5th here in Australia, for a meteor shower..... is this part of that shower ? are we passing through it's tail of white wash ?

Love gettin up on the roof with the kids to watch things like this.