Very near miss!!!

Wow, this is very close?

Asteroid shaves past Earth's atmosphere
The closest observed asteroid yet to skim past the Earth without hitting the atmosphere, was reported by astronomers on Sunday.

The previously unknown object, spanning five to 10 metres across, has been named 2004 FU162. It streaked across the sky just 6500 kilometres - roughly the radius of the Earth - above the ground on 31 March, although details have only now emerged.

www.newscientist.com...

Does anyone have any more info on this. If you haver kept up with certain Hoaxes (dare I name names) there are some very minor simularities(sp).

Thats a little bit scary that no one saw this one coming.

I dont think they didnt see this coming they probably traced it until they knew it was safe to tell the "public".
I was wondering it's only 10 meters would the earths atmosphere not just burn it before it even got anywhere near ground?

lol... yeah, and scare the crap outa Washington again

Seriously, that is a bit too close. I wish they would just start telling us beforehand about these. People will get used to it after no more than a year of reports of NEO's. Governments are already desensitizing us to other extremes, it would be refreshing to hear of a possible catastrophic meteor rather than a possible catastrophic nuclear war! I can deal with being killed by natural causes/disasters, but not by ignorance and power-lust of man!!!

to quote the movie Armageddon...

"Well, our object collison budget's about a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky."

so to say they saw it coming is sort of off. A LOT goes unnoticed.

Well it's a touchy subject. We see extremely few NEO, most likely as proven with this story only we hear of only a few a year. Then we hear about them months after the fact. The gov't knows of more but like stated in the post above by earthscum, "scare the crap out of washington" and cmdrkeenkid "A lot goes unnoticed" Washington does not want anybody to know they are actually nervous about something. I have noticed that they only want to project a sense of nervousness. But in something like this I am sure it would be genuine.

Then the fact that not enough money is allocated around the globe for tracking NEO's. We need the money so bad for war and defense we leave our back doors open for a sneak attack by asteroid or meteor. So "alot goes unnoticed".

My sig was taken from an Australian newspaper and it reinforces the fact that not enough resources are being allocated to NEO's.

Originally posted by markjaxson
I dont think they didnt see this coming they probably traced it until they knew it was safe to tell the "public".
I was wondering it's only 10 meters would the earths atmosphere not just burn it before it even got anywhere near ground?

Taken from the article: "The smaller 2004 FU162 would have burned up as a fireball ending with a smaller explosion, had it ventured into the Earth�s atmosphere."

Hello everyone,
Okay. A good place to check EVERY SINGLE DAY is this place: www.hohmanntransfer.com...

I would say check that place out daily.

Another point, it is a huge sky and they can't find everything. There are wonderful amatuer astronomers all over the world, but even they can't find it all. It's also up to others too. If someone sees something on SOHO or SWAN like Jumpspace did, report it to these places. You just never know, someone may NOT have seen it at all. Better to report it to them even if they know than not.

As many NEOs are up above us, I'm very sure that many go unreported and many go not ever being found until they kind of pass by. I do not feel in any way that it is some kind of weird conspiracy. I personally think that many people are getting too caught up in conspiracy theories and are getting addicted to them. BTW, life is not like in the movies for those of you caught up in conspiracy theories. Why waste your life getting sucked into all the stupid conspiracy theories? It's getting beyond ridiculous, to be 100 percent honest.

That link that I gave you is called Major News About Small Objects. It keeps track of them. There are several places that you could report stuff to. Spaceguard UK, Spacewatch and the like.

Tiza

I did'nt know anything about this, and it was reported on Sunday??

The Goverment really needs to shape up and start taking this sort of thing seriously.

Well it's just a matter of time. Even if they could track all of them would it matter? They said they wouldn't tell the public if the plant was in imminent danger from being hit anyway. We just need tolive our lives to the fullest the best we can. We just need to hope that if it does happen that we are surrounded by the people we love.

Originally posted by jmilici
Wow, this is very close?

..The previously unknown object, spanning five to 10 metres across, has been named 2004 FU162. It streaked across the sky just 6500 kilometres

Does anyone have any more info on this. If you haver kept up with certain Hoaxes (dare I name names) there are some very minor simularities(sp).

Hi all!

I guess it's not very surprising that scientists failed to discover this object or make an announcement? An object, 10m across at a distance of 6 500km would present a very small angular diameter ie 1/ 650 000, which if my math is correct is about 0.000 088 degrees? (please check - it's ages since I used sine calculations!!:lol. For comparison, the Moon has an angular diameter of around 0.5 degrees. This would be almost the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack I suppose?

Just my �0.02...

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
to quote the movie Armageddon...

"Well, our object collison budget's about a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky."

so to say they saw it coming is sort of off. A LOT goes unnoticed.

Ok, so what about the other countries. They would be affected as well if we were hit by a large asteroid. Are they contributing to the discovery of NEO?

And if not, why not?!? If we get hit, it's not just America that will be affected.

Originally posted by deeprivergal
Ok, so what about the other countries. They would be affected as well if we were hit by a large asteroid. Are they contributing to the discovery of NEO?

And if not, why not?!? If we get hit, it's not just America that will be affected.

I'm sure other space agencies have their systems comparable to LINEAR and NEAT, but I've never really heard of them. I also think that even if other agencies had comparable systems that they would be just as underfunded.

Why don't all systems merg together. I understand the political issues involved, what I don't understand is the fact that like stated above, this affects everyone!!!!! If it was all pooled together imagine the possibilities.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid...I'm sure other space agencies have their systems comparable to LINEAR and NEAT, but I've never really heard of them. I also think that even if other agencies had comparable systems that they would be just as underfunded.

Hi CKK!!

According to this site quote:

"There are several northern hemisphere NEO observatories, but only one planned in the southern hemisphere so far -- in Siding Spring, Australia. Other northern hemisphere countries have joined the search: Japan, China, Sweden, Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic. But more coverage is needed from the southern half of the planet to find the NEO's not visible from North America, Europe, and Asia...."

But, I'm sure funding will be an issue - is is for most other things (bar defence, it seems! )

They knew about this NEO. They also knew that if it hit the atmosphere that it would break off into small fire balls. There is a lot going on right now and they surely do not want to start a panic over a couple of potential fireballs. Reality, they will not tell us one way or the other; if it is dangerous or not. The PHA in 2032 is huge and a potential hazard (hence, PHA) but I have not yet heard anything on this one. This one will be as close, if not closer to the moon. 2032 is not really that far away when you have family. I will hopefully be retiring by then or almost retiring. If they were going to go public, I would think that knowing this far in advance that this particular PHA would have made it through the media cut. I guess a lot of people do not think that far into the future I guess - then again, maybe none of us will be here by then.

Genya! thanks for the information!

Originally posted by jmilici
Why don't all systems merg together. I understand the political issues involved, what I don't understand is the fact that like stated above, this affects everyone!!!!! If it was all pooled together imagine the possibilities.

when was the last time everyone in the world banded together to help solve a problem? it's never until too late that it happens. eventually it will be our demise.

Originally posted by Godsent
They knew about this NEO. They also knew that if it hit the atmosphere that it would break off into small fire balls.

5-10 meters across really isn't that dangerous. especially if it broke up into smaller pieces, which would most likely be the case. the smaller pieces then would no doubt burn up in the atmosphere.

and PHA stands for (i think) Potentially Hazardous Asteroid... that covers basically any NEO.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
when was the last time everyone in the world banded together to help solve a problem? it's never until too late that it happens. eventually it will be our demise.

Yeah that is sadly the truth. I guess to us it would be a no-brainer thing to do. Heck, I would befriend an enemy if it ment protecting our way of life from an outsider. Too bad the people that call the shots are still in kindergarten.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid


and PHA stands for (i think) Potentially Hazardous Asteroid... that covers basically any NEO.

It does, but it doesn't. They separate NEO's and PHA's because usually NEO's are smaller and burn up in the atmosphere. They worry more about PHA's because they are more of a potential hazard for one or the other reasons - mass, material, etc.

I am telling you the one that we should be concerned over is the the PHA in 2032.