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

reply to post by intrptr

Do you know if they account for the passage of one of these near to other planets when calculating their trajectories?

Yes, they do.
Not much point if they didn't.

Please delete

reply to post by intrptr

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?

Yes will have to keep looking as its orbit will "drift" over time do to gravitioanal effects from other bodies

Also solar heating of the surface "YARKOVSKY EFFECT" will cause orbit to shift

en.wikipedia.org...

The above details can become more complicated for bodies in strongly eccentric orbits.

The effect was first measured in 1991-2003 on the asteroid 6489 Golevka. The asteroid drifted 15 km from its predicted position over twelve years (the orbit was established with great precision by a series of radar observations in 1991, 1995 and 1999).[2]

In general, the effect is size dependent, and will affect the semi-major axis of smaller asteroids, while leaving large asteroids practically unaffected. For kilometre-sized asteroids the Yarkovsky effect is minuscule over short periods: 6489 Golevka is estimated to be subjected to a force of about 0.25 newton, for a net acceleration of 10−10 m/s². But it is steady; over millions of years an asteroid's orbit can be perturbed enough to transport it from the asteroid belt to the inner Solar System.

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reply to post by thedman

Thanks for the reply thedman. Yarkovsky, huh?

I get the principal. Assuming Lots of time, the pressure from the solar wind would slowly change an asteroids path. Like maybe to avert impact altogether?

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