Asteroid 2007 TU24 has NASA concerned.

Originally posted by seentoomuch
reply to post by Areal51

 

What is the actual time window of this object at it's closest to Earth? Is there a conversion chart for the time somewhere? I'm in Central Standard Time. Thanks,
STM

2007 TU24 @ 2008-01-29 07:11:00
hea-www.harvard.edu...:11:00

Anyone that is saying it will not hit...going by the numbers there is a chance, it might, but the jury is out! After reading 20 pages of mostly crap, I am convinced that the majority of us are morons. I am not going to quote specifics, but for someone to say that TU24s rotational spin with have no effect in it's trajectory is just plain wrong! If it gets close enough to our atmosphere and gravitional pull of us and our moon, it's spin would definetly be a factor...could help or hinder it depending on your outlook on life. And to the idiot that said that their aren't 4 states of matter, there are...solids, liquids, gases, and PLASMA (which has exhibits properties of the other three states) As to a plasma discharge instead of a direct hit...it could happen. Just needs to get close enough to have an energy arc (discharge from earth to TU24).
But to the real points I wanted to make...

After researching the figures, did anyone else notice that it is coming in behind and below Earth (both counter-clockwise in orbit around sun) at about 1/3 the speed of Earth in it's orbit? This means that it isn't just going to shoot by but pass us slowly. Given enough time during the "pass-by" couldn't our gravity grab hold of it? Also, using more astronomical data one can speculate that with the 23.5 degree tilt of the earth and it's angle of inclination of 7 degrees means that if TU24 ( with it's inclination of 5 degrees) did impact, it would do so in the Southern Hemisphere near 25-30 degrees south of the equator. Australians, I feel your fear, as I think your most likely to be in the wrong place in the wrong time. I also saw people asking if you could see it when it comes by.
Depends on where it is (if in fact gravitional pull does bring it in) and where you are on the surface of the Earth. I am in Oregon in the now facisist United States, so I don't think anyone else in the Northern Hemisphere would see it, maybe south in Europe and Russia, but not here in North America. Besides it will be 10am to 4pm (full-on daylight) my time when the event is likely to occur, whatever that is. Just some thoughts.

I really do think it is strange that not one mention of this has occured in the mainstream media and we are down to one weeks time. NASA is posting documents that state that TU24 is the most troublesome NEO (discovered) in the last 20 years and for the next 20 years! Then it disappears off their website only living on by the few that grabbed and archived the page. Telescopes going offline the day before. Very strange indeed, I am definetly going to keep an open mind on this thing.

Originally posted by dgtempe
I watched the History channel last night and all prophesies from around the world, every religion have that date as a target date for the end of humanity.

Not all the religions (Christianity, Hinduism, & Islam, the three largest religions, say nothing of 2012). Many of them, however, do say something is going to happen sometime, so this could be the time.

The sad thing is i cant tell anyone i know about it, they think i'm nuts.

Same here. Maybe we ARE nuts. I've heard that normalcy is overrated anyway.

Seriously, from reading and researching the 'net and calling some friends who are more into astrometry than I am, from what I am understanding, there is simply no way, with 100% accuracy, to be able to predict if this rock will hit or not. It's rotation is too erratic, it's historical orbit is not known, and the effect the earth's gravity will have on this object isn't 100% understood, so basically, wait and see.

I know what I am going to do. Nothing. If it hits, bummer. If it doesn't, OK. There's not a whole lot I can do about it anyway, one way or the other, so I am not going to worry.

I'm still interested, and if it does come close, it could be one awesome light show.

Here is why this is concerning me...even the skeptics are ending their posts with...but regardless there is nothing we could do, if we are doing to die we are going to die so go live your life and so on and so on.

Usually our skeptics on this board knock the ball out of the park immediatly and factualy put an end to the specualtion. That has not happened in this thread or at least not the hard core no holds barge that it is usually debunked. (also this is why we need our beloved skeptics IMO, otherwise we would all be in a constant state of depression and end of times)

Anyway, there are over 400 responses in this thread but not a whole lot of real information either way.

So the post above mine says Aussies would be the ones most effected if this thing did hit, Is this correct?
If so should our Aussie friends start preparing, is there that much of a chance this thing could hit?
And besides Tsunamis what should we expect?
How will this effect the rest of the world? Could Tsunamis happen on other coast lines?
Is this an armegedon event if it did hit? and if it doesnt hit will there be any effects of it's close fly by?
And how can we know the exact direction of an astroid in 2029 but not know what is going on in 7 days?
And last but not least should I even bother cleaning up my house today?

reply to post by hildar


Re:hildar--thank you--appreciate your reply--have stopped losing sleep over this.glad for you to have a gifted family.now its up to someone else to worry?

the vatican?westminster abbey ?mecca?maybe the temple yet to be built in jerusalem?well where/when ever--- it is best to avoid all temples on the 29th?
unless you possibly like looking at big fast "rocks" close up?

You do the math..the earth is pulling on that quite significantly unless I screwed something up using Newton's F= G*m1*M2/d^2

G= 6.67x10e-11 Mm^2/kg^2

m1 5.98 *10^24 kg [earth]
m2 4.4e^+10 kg [TU24]

d = 300000 km

I came up with a huge number of Newtons...not fig newtons either

Originally posted by SEEWHATUDO
So the post above mine says Aussies would be the ones most effected if this thing did hit, Is this correct?
If so should our Aussie friends start preparing, is there that much of a chance this thing could hit?
And besides Tsunamis what should we expect?
How will this effect the rest of the world? Could Tsunamis happen on other coast lines?
Is this an armegedon event if it did hit? and if it doesnt hit will there be any effects of it's close fly by?
And how can we know the exact direction of an astroid in 2029 but not know what is going on in 7 days?

Nobody knows for certain if this thing will hit. Even the debunkers, like you pointed out, have not had much ammo on this one.

Let's say for a moment that TU24 strikes a direct hit. For people living around the impact, things will be bad. The blast could be as large as a 30 megaton bomb. That's won't be a picnic. But it will not effect the rest of the globe much. There could be some debris in the air for a while, but on a global scale, not much of an issue, other than the humanitarian concern for those who were directly effected by the impact.

If the asteroid does not strike, the next thing to worry about it the "charge" of the object. There's no way to know yet if this thing has a positive or a negative charge, so we'll just have to wait on that one.

As for not knowing much about it, well, they only discovered it in October. It hasn't been observed long enough for them to be able to make accurate predictions about it's orbit and velocity. I would bet that the predictions of the asteroid in 2029 change quite a few times in the next 20 years.

And last but not least should I even bother cleaning up my house today?

Might as well do your cleaning. It will take your mind off of things. Besides, if this thing is a mothership, do you want ET visiting your house with dirty dishes in the sink?

[edit on 22-1-2008 by d. duck]

reply to post by BlackProjects

HUH?

Can you clarify for me
what it all means?
Thank you!

Originally posted by defcon5
Here
That has it mapped against the constellations.

According to your link above:

2007 TU24 - approaching
Approximate diameter: 311 meters (H=20.184)
Closest Earth approach: 1.44 LD at 0832 UTC on 29 Jan.
Inside ten LD of Earth: 24 Jan. until 3 Feb.
Inside Earth's Hill sphere: 27 to 31 Jan.
Closest Moon approach: 2.20 LD at 1539 UTC 29 Jan.
Data based on: JPL SSD orbit solution #18 downloaded 19 Jan.
Optical observation: observed from 16 locations during 98.8114 days
discovered at 0626 UTC on 11 Oct. by the Catalina Sky Survey
last observed at 0154 UTC on 18 Jan. by Desert Moon Obs.
Note: radar target

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as 2007 TU24 makes it's closest approach through our neighborhood, it appears the moon will be in less danger of a strike than will be the Earth, judging by the figures I've emphasized.

As of the 18th, of course.

I'm a bit concerned, I've been reading this thread wondering about this asteroid hitting us. I wouldn't usually be too worried but for the following things:

1, This asteroid hasn't hit the mainstream media yet;

2, There have been reports of SETI signals;

3, Russia has stated it will use preemptive nuclear strikes to defend its territories from invaders;

4, NATO Has asked for permission to use preemptive strikes.

Points 3 and 4 worry me more than the first 2 - why would both Russia and NATO consider those options unless they expected something to happen? If they are thinking about an asteroid hit then surely the chaos created would be a good time to invade an enemy. I might be little crazy in my thinking and jumping the gun a little but something doesn't seem right. I live near an airbase in Lincolnshire, England, there has been a lot of activity recently!!

I hope someone can settle me a little bit.

reply to post by Rapacity


So far as the SETI signals go, according to Slashdot, it was due to shoddy journalism:

Rumors have been flying in recent days that the SETI project has received a strong signal from space, indicating the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Bad Astronomy breaks down the origins of this (false) claim, which mostly amounts to a heaping helping of shoddy journalism.

Source | Slashdot | News Of SETI Signal Just Bad Reporting



[edit on 22-1-2008 by goosdawg]

Originally posted by dgtempe
Hildar, that story gave me the creeps!

I dont know what to think or where to go to look up information that i can understand

I am convinced however, that the end will come in some form on 2012 for most of us. I watched the History channel last night and all prophesies from around the world, every religion have that date as a target date for the end of humanity.

The sad thing is i cant tell anyone i know about it, they think i'm nuts. I feel so isolated and alone with my knowledge of this asteroid.... Nobody i know gives a damn and they dont beleive it either. I am more interested in the scientific understanding of things as opposed to the Apocalypse/Biblical side of these issues.

Is there a website that lays out the asteroid situation in laymans terms so one can understand it?

The best place to go where everyone takes your views more to heart is the book of THoTH. I enjoy my time there because even on things like this asteroid people dont act like you are a nut case. And even talks on 2012 there are pretty interesting. people are much more open minded.

On the other hand all I can say is for proof the one page I found does prove that something isnt right. Once again here it shows up till the 28th and no more until the 30th for goldstone. Also this has not been updated now for a week.

echo.jpl.nasa.gov...

Something I don't see many people taking into effect are near earth objects, and all the debris between us and the asteroid's current position. It's not like this is the only object in space between us and however far the asteroid is at the moment.

Earth, as well as any other planet, is surrounded by matter, visible and invisible. At any given moment there are literally thousands of known asteroids nearby, hundreds of which are considered a potential impact risk. That's just the ones we know about. It's not like they have squads of people working around the clock, watching the skies for potential impacts. There's less than 10 people in the entire world who actually contribute anything to the "sky vigil". Less than half of them actually get paid to do it. According to one of the Discovery channel specials on the subject of NEOs (Near Earth Objects), we know about less than 1% of the matter surrounding _just_ Earth.

What's the point of this? Well, it's a threefold response.

There are any number of impacts that TU24 will undergo before it nears Earth. Any one of which could change its speed, trajectory, spin, mass, size, etc to a significant degree.

Any number of said impacts that TU24 undergoes en route to its rendezvous with Earth stands a chance of altering the speed, trajectory, spin, mass, size, etc of the NEOs it comes into contact with, possibly sending them into Earth, or accelerating their impact time.

Think of TU24 as a giant cue ball on a pool table, being randomly hit towards a corner pocket with poor aim, and several balls between it and the hole. More from chance than by design, any number of balls, including the cue ball, could end up in the corner pocket. Or, more likely, will be randomly redistributed around the pocket without sinking a single one. That's kind of an over-simplified assessment of the situation, since we're dealing with 3D space and not 2D space, and the asteroids are all of different size, shape, and nothing is "at rest", everything is moving constantly, but the visualization might help the realization of the situation.

The lack of information available is almost certainly because the half-dozen or so people who have the equipment, knowledge, time, and inclination to find out anything about it, have already moved on to the next page of hundreds of newly discovered NEOs and are analyzing them to assess greater risks. There's no new information being produced because there are no departments dedicated to the study and analysis of this object. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the group of people in this thread are the largest concentration of people who actually care about this asteroid, and how many of you have the equipment and knowledge necessary to confirm or deny the potential threat of TU24?

Anyway, I hope this helps. Like I said, BadAstronomy.com has a pretty good name, but he's also one guy, with one opinion and set of datum not taking into account random collisions and lack of detailed analysis. He's only going off of expected trajectory, mass, and speed, along with the sort-of constants we have with the Earth and Moon.

If what happened in 1908 is any factor, I would rather a direct hit than for a slow descent into the atmosphere where this thing will heat up to a very high tempature and then explode in a plasma bomb that would possibly effect the entire globe. A nuclear weapon is a small device capable of enormous destruction. How much more something hundreds of meters wide with a spin to it. It could actually skim around the planet an even land in the northern hemosphere. That might be China or the pacific ocean. If it hits the Pacific I pity the west coast of the United States. It would make the last great tsunami look like a small meaningless wave in comparison.

reply to post by dgtempe


DG..I had to do calculation kinda quick I show'd the equation to determine gravitational attraction.. There are exponentials invovled.. But when I did the math the answer is a huge number.. Which possibly means the earth will attrack this object.. I will revisit it when I get some time later.
BP

Thank you!

It doesnt look good, i just googled "Latest TU24 news" and i got creeped out. Its coming a lot closer than anyone thinks.

And the silence about this one speaks volumes to me.

There. If a LOLCAT can't get the meteor into mainstream media, nothing can.

[edit on 1/22/2008 by thelibra]

Originally posted by dgtempe

Thank you!

It doesnt look good, i just googled "Latest TU24 news" and i got creeped out. Its coming a lot closer than anyone thinks.

And the silence about this one speaks volumes to me.

I competely agree with you. After reading the post on this thread and doing internet searches. My conclusion is that something is not quite right.

Now how in this world, or rather out of this world, does a search on Nasa's website for 2007 TU24 return no, 0, nada results? Can that be normal?

reply to post by dgtempe


Thanks for the nudge to do a search.

Check out this link to page 59 of the discussion ongoing on GLP:

www.godlikeproductions.com...

They've mentioned the fact that:

The elite are gathering in Switzerland for an economic forum, and, of course, the Swiss have bomb shelters for everyone!

Also the hidden-in-plain sight symbolism of an asteroid smashing into the Earth in a CG animation in support of a story on Northern Rock.

And a blatant direct ripoff of percievedreality's post from our forum: post by percievedreality

Looks like these two forums are cross-pollinating on this story.