NASA in final preparations for November 8

New article from NASA, released today....

NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California, as the space rock safely flies past Earth, slightly closer than the Moon’s orbit, November 8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400 meters) asteroid as a science target of opportunity, allowing instruments on “spacecraft Earth” to scan it during the close pass.

Tracking the aircraft-carrier-sized asteroid will begin at 9:30 a.m. PDT November 4, using the massive 230-foot (70m) Deep Space Network antenna, lasting for about two hours. The Goldstone facility will continue to track the asteroid for at least four hours each day from November 6 through November 10. Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin November 8, the same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers), or 0.85 the distance from the Moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet’s tides or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the past 200 years.

www.astronomy.com...

Not much to add but a wait and see what happens.....

Thanks for the article. This one has me worried. That's pretty close if you think about it. Any chances of it hitting the moon ?

reply to post by blackmetalmist


No, even amateur data alone is enough to confirm that it won't hit the moon.

november 8th or 9th cause i,ve checked the neo website and it has the closest approch on the 9th,take it nasa has reavaluated its data and its now the 8th?

reply to post by blackmetalmist


I don't think it would have any effect on us if it hit the moon, the moon has taken a beating and keeps on floating around the Earth, notice the crators. NASA has even sent a bomb to the moon blowing another crator in the side of it. It's only as big as an aircraft carrier so I doubt we would notice any thing here on Earth

Wow that is really close when speaking "space measurements". Wonder what the closest ever asteriod was NOT to hit the earth. this has to be right up there, anything closer might get snatched up by earth

reply to post by mileslong54


Precisely, the most we'd witness is a small flash of light from the impact.

An object would need to be like 1/4 the size of the moon to do any serious damage from which we'd have justifiable panic.

reply to post by Glassbender777


65,000,000 years ago?

Very good info thanks.

reply to post by mileslong54



Thanks ! I keep on thinking of that image of the moon falling on us lol. Thinking it would get knocked out of its orbit. Would really be a scary sight to see !

Heres my next question (if anyone cares to answer it ) Since its going to be fairly close to us, shall we expect to see some kind of light show in the sky or does that rule only apply to comets ?

reply to post by blackmetalmist


320 000 km's is close? compared to what???? the diameter of the earth is only 12742km..... the average distance to the moon is only 384 403km's, yet it took the Apollo guys only 3 days to get there ..... but on a cosmic scale, it is really close.....

reply to post by blackmetalmist


This picture has been posted a few times on ATS but in case you haven't seen it.




As you can see YU55 is above the ecliptic plane, and will pose no threat to the moon.

I'm looking forward to see the
images NASA gets! Should be
spectacular!

reply to post by Hellhound604


I was referring to cosmic scale, yes. I'm sure gravitational forces play a big part when somewhat big objects like these come close to Earth. I didn't know it went on an elleptical part, so I guess that makes a difference.

reply to post by mileslong54


Cut the crap that's when MW3 comes out.I'm sick of packing and unpacking my bags with all of these predictions.
LMAO

reply to post by blackmetalmist

no light show,to see it u need a telescope with a 6 inch aperture at least according to nasa so thats my puney 4 an a half ruled out for seeing anything.

reply to post by blackmetalmist


Yea, I'm pretty sure if your on the right side of the planet facing the asteroid you should be able to see it. A little light show is all I'm expecting.

This had me worried all along as well, but I think it is clear now that there is nothing to worry about. It is still unnerving when you consider just how close this massive rock will be to our planet. Way too close for comfort if you ask me.

200,000 miles on a cosmic scale is like being right at our backdoor. This does make you stop and think that it wouldn't take much to end everything here on Earth. We will be hit by a giant asteroid, or one of considerable size, at some point in the future. Whether it is 50 years or 50,000, who knows?

All it takes is for one of them to be knocked out of orbit, like the Shoemaker-Levy impact on Jupiter. They estimate, roughly, that the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, or at least 3/4 of them initially, was about 6 miles wide...2/3 of life on Earth could be wiped out by a 3 mile asteroid, or possibly smaller.

There is a big one called Ida that regularly crosses our orbit, and this baby is about 250 miles wide. There is not a chance of it hitting us, but there are about 50 other Earth-ending asteroids that cross our orbit, although luckily we don't happen to be there most of the time. Asteroid impacts were very common on Earth billions of years ago, as there were so many more than today.

But, their sizes haven't diminished although impacts have become relatively more infrequent. In my opinion, even if astronomers discover a potential life-ending asteroid years in advance, there isn't a whole lot we could do about it but sit here and wait for it to hit. Asteroids, or any space body for that matter, scare the bejeezus out of me.

Just look at the Tunguska event in Russia. Most scientists think it was a comet. There was a lack of a crater, although the weird thing was the metal recovered at the site. Although some think it was a UFO, it was probably some sort of odd celestial-body, and it was pretty small. If you look at pictures you can see the amount of sheer destruction that it caused. To me that's scary. Or Meteor Crater here in the USA. I remember the first time I visited the place, when I was about 10 years old. It had a lasting impact on me, and I have been fascinated with meteors, asteroids, and comets ever since.

Do these things cause anyone else a bit of worry? I know it is pointless to fret over it, and I usually don't, but knowing that an impact is inevitable really makes me want to do great things before I die. Odds are the next few generations will definitely be safe, but after that, who knows?

Originally posted by brick38
reply to post by mileslong54

 

Cut the crap that's when MW3 comes out.I'm sick of packing and unpacking my bags with all of these predictions.
LMAO

Hey I'm getting MW3 but just got Battlefield 3 and it's amazing, get it!

reply to post by JiggyPotamus


doesn,t worry me atall,don,t think i would even be scared watching an asteroid streak across the sky knowing that when it impacted it would wipe us all out,we all know for fact we,r going to die,to me what a way to go.