Asteroid 2012 KA 'buzzing' earth today.. discovered just yesterday!

Another asteroid between 4.5 and 10 meters (14-33 feet) wide will buzz by at about the same distance on May 17, 2012. Asteroid 2012 KA was discovered just today (May 16), and is projected to make its closest approach about 0.0015 AU, or 224,397 kilometers (134,933 miles, .6 lunar distances) from Earth’s surface at 19:43 UTC on Thursday. The asteroid was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon Observatory, and at the time of this writing, is the only observatory that has made any observations. Therefore JPL lists the uncertainty of the orbit as fairly high (9 out of a 1 to 10 scale) but orbital projections from JPL’s Small Body Database website confirms there is no chance this asteroid would hit Earth.

Source: Asteroid 2012 KA to buzz earth on May 17th

JPL Orbit Diagram

I've put this thread here in Fragile Earth. It might be the wrong place, (so mods feel free to move it) but I put it here for a reason..

I know, looking at the size of it, that it would do no damage, and I know, that they are fairly sure it will fly straight past. I'm not suggesting doom in the slightest.
I'm just as rattled that they discovered it yesterday.
It still has a condition code of 9.
At the time the article above was written on the universe today website 3.15am, it had only been observed by one observatory.

One day they're going to discover one that isn't ''definitely.. probably'' going to miss us..
Let's hope we have longer than a day to prepare eh?
I'm feeling pretty darned fragile right now, how about you?

I would imagine something 10 meters wide is pretty hard to spot in space. It is a kind of large area to search.

Though they are getting more efficient at finding the larger ones that can do more damage, they do have a lot of room for improvement.

That isn't particularly big and if it hit the atmosphere it would have made a cool shooting star. I watched these before the russians launched sputnik. If the big one comes we aren't going to send a crew of oil guys up to save us. Just grin and bear it, and be content that you are living in interesting times.

I wish a few 'tiny' ones would hit the Vatican, D.C., and the City of London. The really only disconcerting thing about this is the delay in reporting, which really isn't that special. I am sure that there are many rocks that size that wiz by our ball all the time and that the only reason they are even reporting it is to keep the Space Threat Meme active in our consciousness. - I channeled that from my inner-conspiracy child.

On the flip side, I am ready for what comes. It may suck, whatever it is, but I am tired of hanging out here in my mother's basement, updating my Facebook status every time I have to visit the bathroom. I think there may be some space stuff coming, but I don't 'feel' it is asteroids. I think it may be more CME, if anything - or super charged particles from the galactic plane (that would be interesting).

Nonetheless, your concern is valid. There is a lot to be suspicious/attentive of/to these days.

Let's hope we have longer than a day to prepare eh?

The smaller they are the harder they are to find. That's why this tiny one was only just discovered.
The larger they are they easier they are to find. That's why they are found at greater distances.

The fact that the tiny ones are found at all says a lot.

I know it's not big enough to do any damage, although having said that, even the ones that are considered small, and do break up in the atmosphere, depending on approach have the capacity to do some damage..
(Tunguska anyone? )

It just made me realise that even though we have spent so much time staring up at, and mapping out all the potentially hazardous NEO's there are plenty of rocks whizzing about up there we still don't have a clue about.
Makes life more interesting!

Originally posted by Phage
The fact that the tiny ones are found at all says a lot.

Absolutely amazing really.
I suppose in some respects, although it seemed alarming because it was discovered so late in the day, at least we know that there ARE thousands of people setting up their telescopes, and sitting in observatories doing just that; discovering these things. Without them things would be a lot more alarming.

reply to post by Deplume


Well, it could do damage which depends on it's consistency and whether it hits you're house while you're in it.

Originally posted by Phage

Let's hope we have longer than a day to prepare eh?

The smaller they are the harder they are to find. That's why this tiny one was only just discovered.
The larger they are they easier they are to find. That's why they are found at greater distances.

The fact that the tiny ones are found at all says a lot.

What if a dinosaur killer comes out of the sun? How much leeway do we have then?

Here is video of a "small" one just passing by in 1972.

Originally posted by Deplume

I know it's not big enough to do any damage, although having said that, even the ones that are considered small, and do break up in the atmosphere, depending on approach have the capacity to do some damage..
(Tunguska anyone?

)

It just made me realise that even though we have spent so much time staring up at, and mapping out all the potentially hazardous NEO's there are plenty of rocks whizzing about up there we still don't have a clue about.
Makes life more interesting!

Why not stay ahead and keep a eye out with this



then have fun looking at what it can do with this
www.purdue.edu...
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...
Have fun I did

reply to post by Trillium


I like it!!!

Originally posted by intrptr

Originally posted by Phage

Let's hope we have longer than a day to prepare eh?

The smaller they are the harder they are to find. That's why this tiny one was only just discovered.
The larger they are they easier they are to find. That's why they are found at greater distances.

The fact that the tiny ones are found at all says a lot.

What if a dinosaur killer comes out of the sun? How much leeway do we have then?

Since when does the sun shoot out asteroids? What kind of asteroid survives being inside the sun?

Your second question is obvious since we know the distance of the sun, which is 150million KM, and given an estimate of 30km/s, I get about 20 days. This supposes that we would see a giant asteroid that shot out of the sun somehow without being detected entering it.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04

Since when does the sun shoot out asteroids? What kind of asteroid survives being inside the sun?

You thought I was implying that? Really?

In air wars since WWII, fighters come "out of the sun". Ever heard of that term? They use positioning that allows them to attack their enemy with the sun behind them so the enemy won't see his attacker until too late. Thats all that means.

An orbiting asteroid can assume an elliptic that passes behind the sun (where it is unseen) , then rounding the sun proceeds towards us. Unless we are looking for it all the time, and they aren't, then this one way that we could miss an incoming until its too late.

I have heard scientists say that as little as three days in some scenarios.

The biggest threat, as I perceive it, is the rock that comes "out of the Sun." More than once in recent memory, I can recall finding out about a good-sized rock passing very close by the Earth and not being seen untill ti had gone by. This happened because would have had to be looking almost directly at the Sun to see it, and we were looking at the dark side of the rock. We didn't see it untill it went passed and we could see the side on which the Sun was shining. Perhaps some of the unmanned science facilities being stationed on Mars could be equipped with telescopes so that, at least when Mars is in opposition to Earth, we can get a look out into space from the other side of the Sun.

Read on. Its our blind spot.

www.physicsforums.com...

reply to post by intrptr

Perhaps some of the unmanned science facilities being stationed on Mars could be equipped with telescopes so that, at least when Mars is in opposition to Earth, we can get a look out into space from the other side of the Sun.

Your link is a forum, like this one. They are also talking about rogue black holes coming at us. Considering we are moving around the sun, the asteroid would be in position to be seen for quite a while, whether we would see it or not I can not say, but unlike fighters in WWII asteroids are not intelligent and can't keep moving so as to remain unnoticed by intelligently using the sun as cover.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04

but unlike fighters in WWII asteroids are not intelligent and can't keep moving so as to remain unnoticed by intelligently using the sun as cover.

Imtelligent asteroids huh? Really... along with asteroids "shooting out of the sun" this has to be the two snidest remarks I have from you since the last time you spit venom at me on some 9/11 thread. You say stupid stuff like this all the time? Tell you what. if you are old enough, go to any bar downtown and talk to someone like you do here and they will explain it to you in the parking lot.

That boy is as sharp as a bowling ball.
Done trying to sharpen your mind son.
Have a nice life.

reply to post by intrptr

What if a dinosaur killer comes out of the sun? How much leeway do we have then?

Asteroids approaching from the general direction of the Sun would be a problem for ground observations. But the chances are extremely small that a "dinosaur killer" that we don't know about is on such an orbit. NEOWISE did a really good job of finding them.

But if there is one...oh well.

Smaller objects get exponentially harder to spot. Assume two asteroids of the same composition, one 10 meters in diameter and one 100 meters in diameter. The one that's 100 meters in diameter will reflect 100 times more light than the 10 meter one. Thus is will be easier to spot.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by intrptr

 

What if a dinosaur killer comes out of the sun? How much leeway do we have then?

Asteroids approaching from the general direction of the Sun would be a problem for ground observations. But the chances are extremely small that a "dinosaur killer" that we don't know about is on such an orbit. NEOWISE did a really good job of finding them.

Thanks Phage for that reply. I realize the chances are slim. I also know that newcomers are possible as well. Dynamics of all orbiting bodies within the Solar System at large are always changing when it comes to comets whose orbits are off the ecliptic. Do you know if they account for the passage of one of these near to other planets when calculating their trajectories? Like Halley's for instance? We know it is coming back but does that orbit change every time due to other gravitational forces? So we have to "refind" it when it reappears?

reply to post by Phage

Thanks for the NEOWISE comment. I linked it below. This one article by JPL sums it up pretty good. We live in a shooting gallery. Albeit a very big shooting gallery; with lots of space and little things just zippin' around... If this is improper Phage to bring a JPL pic here, please let me know and I will remove it. Some of the comets Photographed:

In addition to discovering new asteroids and comets, NEOWISE also confirmed the presence of objects in the main belt that had already been detected. In just one year, it observed about 153,000 rocky bodies out of approximately 500,000 known objects. Those include the 33,000 that NEOWISE discovered.

NEOWISE also observed known objects closer and farther to us than the main belt, including roughly 2,000 asteroids that orbit along with Jupiter, hundreds of NEOs and more than 100 comets.

NEOWISE

(insert Marvel Comics ricochet sounds) Ziiip! Zing! Pweeeee!