Close Call: Newly Discovered Asteroid Whizzes Past Earth

Close Call: Newly Discovered Asteroid Whizzes Past Earth

www.foxnews.com

PASADENA, California — Scientists say a newly discovered asteroid will whiz harmlessly past Earth on Wednesday, the second close encounter in a month.

The small space rock dubbed 2009 FH will fly within 49,000 miles of the Earth's surface at 8:17 a.m. EDT.

Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, says there's no chance of an impact.

The asteroid, measuring 43 feet and 95 feet across, was spotted Monday night by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Mod Edit: Instructions for the Breaking News Forums: Copy The Exact Headline

[edit on 3/18/2009 by semperfortis]

You just never know when some rock the size of a house will decide to make its way into your living room. In astronomical terms, this is a very, very near miss we seem to be getting every month or so. If one of these ever hit us, it would be a little disturbing, to say the least.

Wish they would spend a little more on finding and preventing these objects from hitting us, and a little less money on some of the less-important space projects.

For one thing, I'd like to see a calculation that shows roughly where it might have hit had it been a strike: you know, N. America, China, whatever.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 18-3-2009 by Jim Scott]

[edit on 3/18/2009 by semperfortis]

I think they are trying to tell us something with their wording. The term "near miss" implies a hit. As in "it nearly missed us, but at the last second it did not." PANIC IN THE STREETS!

Upon ACTUALLY reading the article, I see they did not actually use the term "near miss." Still, please feel free to panic in the streets. There are plenty other reasons to.

The thing that worries me is that if one of these passing "rocks" is big enough, it could mess with our magnetic poles and tip off a pole shift. Doesn't have to hit the earth to cause big problems.......

Originally posted by HaTaX
The thing that worries me is that if one of these passing "rocks" is big enough, it could mess with our magnetic poles and tip off a pole shift. Doesn't have to hit the earth to cause big problems.......

Thank you for supporting my idea. ROFLOFLDINGDONG.

My comments are so awesome that the comp decided to post that last one twice.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by Magnivea]

reply to post by HaTaX


They would have to be huge, and a bunch of them. It appears that the asteroids that killed the magnetic field on Mars were between 200 and 500 km (124 to 311 miles) wide, and there were 20 of them. All of them were impacts as well. To compare, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was 20 to 50 times smaller than those.

One of the last impacts was so big that it left a 3000 km (1864 miles) wide crater. The impact force was 10 TRILLION times the force of the Hiroshima bomb.

[edit on 3/18/2009 by Zaphod58]

two in one month, thats heavy.
How many more do you people think are trailing it ???
Was it an 'loner' ?

I'm just thinking of the increase of Firballs and airquakes some claim to be exploding fireballs..

Any thoughts on this ? Is this the early sings of the Oort-cloud closing in ?

Originally posted by HaTaX
The thing that worries me is that if one of these passing "rocks" is big enough, it could mess with our magnetic poles and tip off a pole shift. Doesn't have to hit the earth to cause big problems.......

Could you please explain HOW a big rock could mess up the magnetic pole !

Asteroid 2009 FH to Fly By Earth on March 18
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 17, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. - A small asteroid will fly past Earth early tomorrow morning (Wed., March 18). The asteroid, 2009 FH, is about 50 feet (15 meters) wide. Its closest approach to Earth will occur at 5:17 a.m. PDT (8:17 a.m. EDT, 12:17 UTC) at an altitude of about 49,000 miles (79,000 kilometers).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/10118baa9ad5.jpg[/atsimg]
"This asteroid flyby will be a good viewing opportunity for both professional and amateur astronomers," said Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The asteroid poses no risk of impact to Earth now or for the foreseeable future."

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e0516ed08314.jpg[/atsimg]
NASA detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near Earth Object Observation Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," plots the orbits of these objects to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

Media contact: DC Agle/JPL 818-393-9011

Source : Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Keep in mind, our solar system is currently in the process of transiting the ecliptic of the galaxy. There is alot more 'stuff' concenrtated along that midline. I'd expect that it's going to get increasingly interesting for the next several years.

Originally posted by wmd_2008
Could you please explain HOW a big rock could mess up the magnetic pole !

Anything with mass has gravity, and the more gravity an object has the more pulling it will do on the earth as it passes by. The larger the object, the larger the magnetic field it also has.

If a big enough body were to pass by the earth close enough, it could really cause some problems for us.

www.absoluteastronomy.com...

The 'pole shift theory' is the hypothesis that the axis of rotation of a planet has not always been at its present-day locations or that the axis will not persist there; in other words, that its physical poles had been or will be shifted. The Pole shift hypothesis is almost always discussed in the context of Earth, but other solar system bodies may have experienced axial reorientation during their existences.

.....

Other theories which are not dependent upon polar ice masses include those involving:

* a high-velocity asteroid or comet which hits Earth at such an angle that the lithosphere moves independent of the mantle

* a high-velocity asteroid or comet which hits Earth at such an angle that the entire planet shifts axis.

* an unusually magnetic celestial object which passes close enough to Earth to temporarily reorient the magnetic field, which then “drags” the lithosphere about a new axis of rotation. Eventually, the sun's magnetic field again determines the Earth's, after the intruding celestial object “returns” to a location from which it cannot influence Earth.

And honestly I'll close with stating that we don't know how much or little it would affect us. But I know earth has been hit by celestial bodies before so that puts the above at least in the realm of possibility.