Asteroid Alert

I just wanted to update this thread with a link to some very cool animations of the encounter, including a view from the asteroid's point of view:

orbit.psi.edu...

I'm not too worried about the Earth, but I'll bet the engineers monitoring our satellite cloud are chewing on their fingernails!

Ofcourse then theres the asteroid that is said to pass by Earth in 2013.

"Astronomers stumbled upon the icy interloper on June 5 while searching for potentially hazardous asteroids.

Equipped with the world's largest digital camera—1,400 megapixels—the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS team snagged a faint image of the odd object while it was more than 700 million miles (1.1 billion kilometers) away, between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. (Explore an interactive solar system.)

"Almost everything we find is an asteroid, but this object was suspicious," said Richard Wainscoat, co-discoverer of the comet and an astronomer at the University of Hawaii."

Source: Nat Geo News

Edit: Cool find DJW001

I have seen two different asteroids burning up in our atmosphere in the past 3 months. They both looked like real big shooting stars that were real low and an orange red color. Both were in the same area of the sky

Originally posted by readytorevolt
I have seen two different asteroids burning up in our atmosphere in the past 3 months. They both looked like real big shooting stars that were real low and an orange red color. Both were in the same area of the sky

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a asteroid burning up in our atmospere called a meteor?

I know, it's still a chunk of rock.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a asteroid burning up in our atmospere called a meteor?
I know, it's still a chunk of rock.

I think scientific term is a "wishing star" / "shooting star" . . . joking of course.
And yes, I think you right.

Doooom!
Dooooom!
Dooooo-ooooooom!

Oh. It' going to miss us?

Science!
Sciii-ence!
Sciiiiiiiiii-ence!

Thanks for the neat thread.

reply to post by Stingray77


After multiple blasts from my shotgun one night, my Dad came out and asked me what I was doing.

I said, "Shooting at the shooting stars. But I don't think I'm leading them enough. I haven't hit one yet."

He cuffed me on the back of my head, took the shotgun and went back inside.

And here I thought it was a galactic version of Skeet.


joke back at ya!

reply to post by Illustronic

I agree with your post up to this paragraph.

Only comets have comas, it is simple outgassing of their frozen 'water', nothing more, nothing spectacular, and when comets lose all of their 'water', they lose their tail and comas, and become simple dormant black comets.

Yes, only comets have comas and tails. This is what distinguishes them from asteroids.

However, out gassing is far more than a reaction from frozen water and it is very spectacular. When comets lose all of their water, if they had any to begin with, they do not lose their comas and tails since these are products from reactions not exclusively related to water. Comet tails consist of dust, gas (some of which can be water) and plasma (or ions).

reply to post by DJW001


That was a great addition to this thread, Thank You.

reply to post by Elvis_Is_Dead


wow!! how big does an asteroid have to be to impact earth?..

reply to post by DJW001


jeez!! look like it could hit any of 6-7 GPS!! What else is gonna be in its way? must be hundreds of sats that could get grazed!!

reply to post by neileboy

jeez!! look like it could hit any of 6-7 GPS!! What else is gonna be in its way? must be hundreds of sats that could get grazed!!

Relax; space is a very large place and both the asteroid and the satellites are relatively small. Nevertheless, there are bound to be some engineers spending the next few nights sleepless. If the asteroid does collide with one of the GPS constellation satellites, the satellite could be smashed to pieces, leaving a cloud of shrapnel spreading out over a vital orbital path.

reply to post by neileboy


Besides, if a satelitte is "grazed", it's toast. I think only humans and animals can be grazed and survive.

Come on...

you cant make a "asteroid alert" out of a puny 20m asteroid... I mean, not unless it was pure iron and traveling close to the speed of light anyway...

I'm wondering if it passes between our moon and Us.

The other thing that I'm curious about is when I have seen pictures of planets or objects passing planets too close they seem to pull matter from each other, could this asteroid, even though its small affect our atmosphere at all?

Can't help feeling they are getting closer and closer.

reply to post by Lynda101

I'm wondering if it passes between our moon and Us.

Although it will come much closer than the Moon, it will not pass in front of the Moon, which would have been very interesting to watch.

The other thing that I'm curious about is when I have seen pictures of planets or objects passing planets too close they seem to pull matter from each other, could this asteroid, even though its small affect our atmosphere at all?

No, it's not massive enough. The Earth will probably change the asteroid's orbit slightly, however.

reply to post by Illustronic


What effect can it have on the moon and its gravitational pull from earth as it passes between the earth and moon?

reply to post by aboutface


Its a 20 METER rock... what gravitational pull? Its like a mosquito going between you and a basket ball. You feel anything...? well thats the effect you'll get on the moon.

reply to post by DJW001

The Earth will probably change the asteroid's orbit slightly, however.

According to your previous link the Earth dramatically changes the orbital characteristics of this asteroid.

orbit.psi.edu...

However the mass of this asteroid and the distance it will be traveling from Earth guarantees that it will have nill effect to Earth and its atmosphere.

An small size asteroid touchdown in a non populated area could bring a final wake up call to our civilization, but also would reinforce the skeptic position, with a subsequent statement like : "The chances to get hit by an asteroid twice are almost zero, so let's continue our normal selfish lifes".