Huge Asteroid 1998 QE2 Sails By Earth on Friday

Skywatchers, and stargazers, keep an eye on the sky tomorrow evening!

A massive asteroid nearly 2 miles wide will zip by Earth on Friday (May 31), in a cosmic event that has grabbed the attention of stargazers, scientists and even White House officials. The asteroid poses no threat of hitting Earth during the flyby, NASA officials assure.

News Link Source

You can watch the event here.

You can watch the asteroid webcast live on SPACE.com courtesy of NASA. Later tonight, NASA will host a web chat about the asteroid with the agency's meteor expert William Cooke at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. That discussion begins at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) and can be accessed here: www.nasa.gov...

They have assured us, that it will not hit Earth. But can be seen passing by to say, "hey what is up Earth, just swinging by to remind you all, that my brothers are out there, and they will come over for dinner some time! whooo! "


Mods, close the thread.. I did a search nothing came up.. but now see its being covered...

I didn't realize asteroids had sails. I guess I learned something new.

Originally posted by rickymouse
I didn't realize asteroids had sails. I guess I learned something new.

lol.. And her crew of 305 space pirates, all of them have peg legs, and a hooks for hands!
You will be able to see them with a telescope!


These kinds of passes just remind us all, that out there, are lots of these things, and we are lucky to have evolved to the point, where we can defend ourselves from such things.
Yet most people on this Earth are more worried about spending money on other things.

There has to be a reason for this. I would think the worlds leaders would all agree, there is no money cap on this.
But, Some say its to costly to defend VS asteroids. How can it be to costly to save the human race?
Guess they have something in mind, otherwise they would be more serious about it.

My thought is. Let the universe do our dirty work, and there will be key survivors who can then hit the restart button. Its happened in the past, and it will happen again.

reply to post by zysin5


Well, if they were actually working on a defense system to dissuade asteroids I would say it would be an allowable expenditure but it seems they are more interested in just looking important. We presently have no way to deter a meteor and they have been messing around in space for over sixty years. During that time frame they have never even tried to deflect or destroy a meteor.

What about any trailing rocks or are we to expect only one nearby object.
That didn't happen the last time when an incidental rock exploded of Russia.
We have to go up there and sweep up all the rocks.
Well if Newtonian calculation says the big boy is a miss that should do it
but who knows if its dragging some asteroids along. Where are the UFOs and
aliens now to help us out.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne

Objects do not "drag" other objects through space unless they are large enough to have objects in orbit around them.

As it turns out 1998 QE2 actually does have an object in orbit around it. But because both will get no closer to Earth than 3.6 million miles, neither one poses any threat whatsoever.
www.universetoday.com...

reply to post by Phage


Drag as in force of gravity if crashing through the asteroid belt nothing would follow
a larger object in an inter stellar or planetary flight according to your 'drag' objection.
Only minding a orbiting rock can't take care of all the forces that can happen.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne

nothing would follow
a larger object in an inter stellar or planetary flight according to your 'drag' objection.

Correct. Nothing would. Though its orbit around the Sun could be altered it would not "follow" the larger object.

Sure the following until disturbed by other masses but the closest mass has
the most control so this following phenomena might happen as groups of
meteorites often happen as a of breaking up of an object however I consider
that a following with out a breakup going around in planetary space following
the original forcing object.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by TeslaandLyne

 

Objects do not "drag" other objects through space unless they are large enough to have objects in orbit around them.

As it turns out 1998 QE2 actually does have an object in orbit around it. But because both will get no closer to Earth than 3.6 million miles, neither one poses any threat whatsoever.
www.universetoday.com...

Hi Phange, haven't seen you post in any thread recently, been away? Nice to see your concise and clear cut posts back on tap.

Thanks for the link, I think it is amazing that this 2 mile wide asteroid has it's own satellite circling it. Really wow,space is so full of wonders!

reply to post by zysin5

Earth, just swinging by to remind you all, that my brothers are out there, and they will come over for dinner some time! whooo! "

and then the humans replied...

"big stone why dont stfu we are busy trying to blast the whole planet based on our religions and politics "

asteroid said..."omg lol"

mmm i just realized something...

to find Phage around here look for comets and asteroid news..

If (cometsAndAsteroidNews == true)

[

Phage.visible = true;

]

lol

It's very round.
Just an observation really. At least it appears to be from the current Radar images.

Hmmmm...... is it just all the news reports or do there seem to be a lot of these things "sailing" by lately? One day, perhaps soon, one of these two mile wide rocks is going to smash into the Earth.

Originally posted by Fromabove
Hmmmm...... is it just all the news reports or do there seem to be a lot of these things "sailing" by lately? One day, perhaps soon, one of these two mile wide rocks is going to smash into the Earth.

If we could only be so lucky.
We are due for a reset

reply to post by Phage


Hell, that's not even a Near Hit.

But one thing is interesting. We have had allot more Stellar Activity lately. By the numbers we are due for a fair sized impact any time soon.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
It's very round.
Just an observation really. At least it appears to be from the current Radar images.

totally nibiru imo :p

Originally posted by Fromabove
Hmmmm...... is it just all the news reports or do there seem to be a lot of these things "sailing" by lately? One day, perhaps soon, one of these two mile wide rocks is going to smash into the Earth.

We have better equipment and more robust networks for searching and anouncing these objects. Also, more people are looking for them than ever.

Is this coming closer than the last one which was apparently the closest in recent times?

I had a dream that I saw it and then was running through the fields to watch it hit, it was quite exciting until I looked at the moon and saw that it was flipping over and over-then I woke up

Would be good if the ISS can film it passing and share the results with us mere mortals?