.002 AU Near Earth Asteroid tomorrow

My fellow potentially dead friends:

Is this the one that was hiding behind the sun and just recently appear?

It may come close, but all be calm, nothing bad related to this will happen.

This sort of stuff scares some and unnerves others, but I am here to say
"Nothing will happen".

Nothing to see here, move along please.

Originally posted by mrmonsoon


Nothing to see here, move along please.

Im getting somewhat frustrated with people who proclaim the above.
Not to point a finger at one person lots say this im just using the above as an example, however, this IS a conspiracy related board..and if everyone were to take a stance based on one persons proclamation that "there is nothing to see here, move along" then, THAT in itself would be condoning ignorance.

Whether or not there is an actual threat from 2007 BD is hardly the point of the original posters intent in my opinion. I think Flyersfan was simply pointing out the fact that it isnt exactly broadcast all over mainstream media like some other major events. How individual's decide to perceive or interpret that knowledge is their own choosing, but to tell a group of people who would prefer to be informed AND potentially prepared in any eventuality to 'move along', is counter-intuitive to the premise of this whole site to begin with.

That being said, however, I do agree that there is no threat on the whole, my largest concern is the silence of it.


AB1

Originally posted by Mogget
There certainly would be a blast wave if an asteroid 38 metres in diameter exploded in Earth's atmosphere, and it wouldn't need to be near the ground to do so. The famous Tunguska event in 1908 was caused by an object roughly 50 metres across exploding at an altitude of something like 10 kms above the Earth's surface, and yet it still flattened 2000 square kms of Siberian forest.

Do you know the relative velocity of the Tunguka object? This is only traveling at 7.6 km/s. That is a very low relative velocity. That would greatly effect the amount of energy released as it enters the atmosphere. Also, the object has a MAXIMUM diameter of 31m (I see it was just revised down from 38m). It could be as low as 17m in diameter. Again, that reduction in diameter greatly effects the amount of energy released (inverse cube law for diameter). I say it'll be no big deal.

Originally posted by alphabetaone
That being said, however, I do agree that there is no threat on the whole, my largest concern is the silence of it.

I would say there is silence precisely because there is no threat. Believe me, with the sensationalistic media, if they could spin it in some way to make it seem dangerous, they'd be all over it. "A common household object can kill your whole family, we'll tell you what it is at 11!"

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
Nothing to see here, move along please.

You are starting to get on my nerves. Seriously.

We are excited about an asteroid coming close by. We want to see it's path and projection. We ALREADY KNOW that it isn't a planet killer and that it most likely will not impact us.

This is exciting. We can get our telescopes out and view it. If the .0019 projection is correct we may actually be able to glimpse it. If it takes a detour to the moon we may actually get to view it making a new crater.

backatchya And if you dare tell untruths like you did on chat last night - claiming that I was giving the impression we had 2 days left to live - I definately WILL hit the compaint button.

YOU mrmonsson, YOU need to 'move along please'.

edited for spelling


[edit on 1/18/2007 by FlyersFan]

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
but I am here to say
"Nothing will happen".

What do you base this on? You DON'T know for sure, Space is a crazy place anything can happen. Do I think this will hit Earth, no but I can't make claims that nothing will happen, I don't have any kind of space degree, do you?

[edit on 18-1-2007 by SpittinCobra]

[edit on 18-1-2007 by SpittinCobra]

Unfortunately, I doubt you will be able to see it. Let's assume it passes within .8 of the lunar distance (that's .8 of 384,000km which equals 307,200 km). A circle with a radius of 307,200km will have a circumference of 1,930,194.526 km or 1,930,194,526 meters. The object, at most is 31m across, so it will subtend a mere .00000016% of the 360 degree circle, or .02 arc seconds. The best ground-based telescopes in the world (I'm talking the big ones, with primary mirrors meters in diameter) have a resolution of 1 arc second. Even the Hubble Space Telescope can only go down to .1 arc second. There is certainly no hope of an armature telescope resolving an object of .02 arc seconds.

Well if it does not hit us today ,the next pass is GUESS WHEN 2012,and it is just as close---neo.jpl.nasa.gov... ----fast forward.

Does anyone know how big this thing is?

I know there's no danger but would like to know.

A possible Wormwood candidate, so it would seem....
What is odd to me is that several cultures have never seen a day past... Dec 21, 2012.

Good info from natataylor, dg:

Originally posted by nataylor
If it did hit the Earth, it wouldn't be big deal. From the Impact Effects Calculator:

Your Inputs:
Distance from Impact: 1.00 km = 0.62 miles
Projectile Diameter: 38.00 m = 124.64 ft = 0.02 miles
Projectile Density: 3000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 7.60 km/s = 4.72 miles/s
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 2500 kg/m3
Target Type: Sedimentary Rock

Energy:
Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.49 x 1015 Joules = 594.66 KiloTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 73.7 years

Atmospheric Entry:
The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 41200 meters = 135000 ft
The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 10200 meters = 33600 ft
The residual velocity of the projectile fragments after the burst is 3 km/s = 1.86 miles/s
The energy of the airburst is 2.10 x 1015 Joules = 0.50 x 100 MegaTons.
No crater is formed, although large fragments may strike the surface.

Major Global Changes:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth's rotation period or the tilt of its axis.
The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.

Air Blast:
What does this mean?


The air blast at this location would not be noticed. (The overpressure is less than 1 Pa)

Originally posted by dgtempe
Does anyone know how big this thing is?

That's been answered several times in this thread. It's currently estimated to be between 17 meters and 31 meters in diameter.

There is another NEO asteroid due to pass by tomorrow. It is just a smidgen further out. It's cloudy here, and finally a bit of SNOW!, so we wouldn't have been able to see anything even if it were scientifically possible. I was hoping these would be big enough and/or bright enough that we could see them tumble across the sky in a telescope. Either that or we could watch them go splat into the moon like we saw from NASA pictures of the Geminid meteors a few days ago.

Oh well .. someday we'll get to see one.

Originally posted by FlyersFan Oh well .. someday we'll get to see one.

I hope not! If we can see it, it represents a much larger threat!

if it would hit the visible side of the moon would we be able to see the impact?

Certainly not with the naked eye. Perhaps with a very good telescope. The best bet is if it hit right at the division between light and dark side of the moon and you could see some ejecta in the light over the dark side.

dg you're making it difficult to eat my dinner. You crack me up.

I doubt it will be visible except to people with really really good scopes. Too small and rocky.

Originally posted by nataylor
Certainly not with the naked eye. Perhaps with a very good telescope. The best bet is if it hit right at the division between light and dark side of the moon and you could see some ejecta in the light over the dark side.

too bad......