Leap Day Asteroid Will Zoom By Earth

www.space.com...



Looks like were getting a little surprise for leap day. This asteroid 2012 DS32 will pass earth around 7:30 pm EST, no worries though it's only the size of a house. Its about twice the moons orbit away from us so joke aside we'll be fine. Why such short notice though, wouldn't they have been following this for a while now?

Really,

wow
thats so LAST MINUTE!

The reason for the short notice is because it was only just recently discovered.

Originally posted by NoNameBrand
The reason for the short notice is because it was only just recently discovered.

Hmm yeah, apparently!

Short notice as in a few hours?

Was it recently discovered a few hours ago?

I have the asteroid alert app in my iphone, every day asteroids are passing by. There are 2 in the list for today and 2 more next day. It's normal.

So I guess the Near Earth Object program is working good

newfound asteroid 2012 DS32

reply to post by Trueman


Wasn't too sure I'll have to get that app for mine as well. You'd think we would have seen this wayyy before today.

I just did the conversion from the name 2012 DW32 and it seems it was discovered feb 22nd this year. Unless my conversion is rusty that is. Someone can please correct me if i'm wrong. I'm going to go look for my cheat sheet so i can double check.

ETA: oops its 2012 DS32 which makes it discovered feb 18th of this year.

Five objects reported inside ten LD

Five visitors are reported moving inside ten lunar distances (LD) of Earth today. Risk-listed 2012 CS46 is calculated with great uncertainty to exit Earth's Hill sphere while further out, 2012 DS32 travels from 6.59 to 4.62 LD, radar target 2012 DX13 departs from within ten LD, moving from 8.91 to 13.84 LD, 2012 DN31 comes inside, moving from 10.46 to 9.45 LD, and 2012 DM32 leaves ten LD, passing from 9.91 to 11.38 LD.

Headed our way, 2012 DR32 arrives inside ten LD on March 1st and 2008 EJ85 arrives inside ten LD on March 4th.

This report was updated at 0114 Feb. 28th UTC with new discovery, tiny departed Earth-buzzing 2012 DU32 (MPEC) and, earlier, discoveries 2012 DS32 (MPEC), 2012 DR32 (MPEC), and 2012 DM32 (MPEC), and follow-up in today's DOU MPEC for 2012 DN31 and 2012 DA14. This report was previously updated at 0052, 0358, and 1645 on the 27th UTC.

www.hohmanntransfer.com...

Looks like there's some more activity including tomorrow and the next few days.

reply to post by NoNameBrand


Didn't know that with how the article read I assumed today thanks for the info.

reply to post by Brandon88


You can tell when they are discovered by the name.

I will use 2012 DS32 as an example.

the first number is the year.

Then they use a letter that indicates the first half or second half of the month of the discovery, according to this table:
Letter Dates Letter Dates
A Jan. 1-15 B Jan. 16-31
C Feb. 1-15 D Feb. 16-29
E Mar. 1-15 F Mar. 16-31
G Apr. 1-15 H Apr. 16-30
J May 1-15 K May 16-31
L June 1-15 M June 16-30
N July 1-15 O July 16-31
P Aug. 1-15 Q Aug. 16-31
R Sept.1-15 S Sept.16-30
T Oct. 1-15 U Oct. 16-31
V Nov. 1-15 W Nov. 16-30
X Dec. 1-15 Y Dec. 16-31

so D is the second half of February.

The next letter is letter is the day of the month.

A = 1st, B = 2nd, C = 3rd, D = 4th, E = 5th,
F = 6th, G = 7th, H = 8th, J = 9th, K = 10th
L = 11th, M = 12th, N = 13th, O = 14th, P= 15th, Q = 16th, R = 17th, S = 18th, T = 19th U = 20th, V = 21st, W = 22nd, X = 23rd, Y = 24th and Z = 25th

so S is the 18th.

They do not use the letter I.

reply to post by NoNameBrand


I never knew any of that Thank you that certainly explains alot I've always wondered how they named these things.

reply to post by NoNameBrand


Right, I do not like to preach doom and gloom and usually fight tooth and nail to debunk the nasty theories but the truth is that if an object approaches us from a certain sector of space we wont get much notice of it. Something wicked could this way come and we might not see it until its too late.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Oh wait that is the regular program here. LOL.

reply to post by NoNameBrand


You didnt say what the 32 was ! We got D Feb 15-29 and S the 18th but you didnt clarify 32. This is new and interesting to me. Thanks.

The funny thing is I do not see anyone talking about the nearly sure hit that is to occur about 28 years from now. That thing is real and no one is talking about it on ATS. I guess we will when 2040 gets here. Ha ha I'll only be 83 years old then. Hey I'll probably be retired then I can stay on here all day and play.

reply to post by karen61057


I'll be around 50 so trust me Im thinking about it. I wouldn't want to mess with it till its closer though because if we do try to change its course we could end up actually making it hit us. You never know we have no surefire way to change its direction at this time.

reply to post by karen61057


And maybe the 32 is the number of asteroids found around that time.

sorry, the 32 does designate the order of when it was found in that time frame.
Here's a link (yes i know it's wikipedia, some people dislike wikipedia)

LINK

It gives a great explanation on how they do their naming.

And as to the asteroids in the future, I am aware of the asteroid Apophis which will be flying by in 2029 and again in 2036, but from what ive read, while it may be a close flyby It is not expected to impact earth.

Apophis

But there was a recent thread on here about a possible impact in 2040. I can't really comment on it as I don't really know anything about it, but here is the link.

www.abovetopsecret.com...