Asteroid Alert

I thought the crater in Arizona was struck by a meteorite the size of a house. Of course, that's the size left of it.

you think this crater was made by a meteor the size of a house...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/992330369df8.jpg[/atsimg]

this was made by a meteorite that was around 150,000 tons..

. About half the original 300,000-ton bulk remained intact, smacking the planet at about 26,800 mph (12 km/sec),

space.com

Originally posted by DJW001
I just wanted to update this thread with a link to some very cool animations of the encounter, including a view from the asteroid's point of view:
orbit.psi.edu...
I'm not too worried about the Earth, but I'll bet the engineers monitoring our satellite cloud are chewing on their fingernails!

Great animation. It's like a slingshot. I would love to take that ride.

I don't know why, however, that you would assume this had the same degree of mystery--to us laymen--that Elenin does?

Aren't there a few anomalies about Elenin that leave the door open--just a teeny bit--that it might be something out of the norm, something different than the majority of the professional community expects?

Originally posted by Illustronic
Everything really cool seems to happen in the southern hemisphere, where like 15% of earth's people live, DRAT!

I want pictures, (or it didn't happen), joking.

Cool heads up dude.

Maybe it because it safer to live in the Northern Hemisphere
maybe this time around we got it right

It will be interesting to see where the earth drives this thng after passing by.....Maybe it could come around and bite us on the ass next time round the solar system...????

reply to post by DJW001


Nice thread and added info.

But when did NASA actually notice this rock?
We seem to be getting a few late surprises lately..

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by DJW001

 

Nice thread and added info.

But when did NASA actually notice this rock?
We seem to be getting a few late surprises lately..

That's what I was thinking! I just wonder why all of sudden there are these out of the blue finds?

Maybe there are just more telescopes now but a year ago isn't much of a difference.

Wonder if something has disturbed the Oort Cloud???

Hrmmmm.. so, what exactly does one put in an "asteroid apocalypse bug out bag"??

Seriously though, when was this discovered.. like the other posters asked. This seems pretty close.. and slipped by. Obviously its small and it woulnt be seen as readily, but there are some hellacious telescopes on this planet. Its also disconcerting when I hear things like "stumbled upon" the asteroid by chance... when reading this stuff. I wanna be assured that some astronomer and astrophysicist is monitoring every square inch of space 24/7.

One day one of these boogers is going to slip under the radar and slap us back into the reality that we are not the masters of our universe.

Originally posted by backinblack
But when did NASA actually notice this rock?
We seem to be getting a few late surprises lately..

According to "Earth's Busy Neighborhood" Here when I read it yesterday morning, this was a new object with 8 observations on the first day.

Here is today's updated information....

2011 MD - approaching intruder
Approximate diameter: 8 meters (H=28.022)
Closest Earth approach: 0.05 LD at 1701 UTC on 27 June - Note: JPL reports an approach uncertainty of 3 minutes.
Inside Earth-Moon system: 2334 UTC tomorrow until 1028 UTC on 29 June
Inside Earth's Hill sphere: 18 June until 6 July Inside ten LD of Earth: 31 May until 25 July
Closest Moon approach: 0.79 LD at 0745 UTC 28 June
Inside one LD of Moon: 1740 UTC on 27 June until 0604 UTC on 29 June
Data based on: JPL SSD orbit solution #2 downloaded today based on 56 observations spanning 2 days Optical observation: observed from 9 locations during 1.8834 days first observed at 0621 UTC on 22 June by LINEAR last observed at 0333 UTC today by Petit Jean Mtn. South Obs. Note: risk, radar target Links: JPL Small-Body Database NEODyS 2011MD Close Approaches

Good thread too DJW

I like how they just discovered it, and give us 3 days "warning". Just goes to show that no matter how many eyes they have pointed into the sky, they can never know for sure if anything is going to hit us or when.

reply to post by Ryanssuperman

If an object is large enough to be problem it is likely to be seen sooner.

What would be some dynamics that would throw their calculations off?

Or is it close enough now that they have all the data they need to be %99.9 sure?

I've gotten different estimates on the size from space.com link here

The best estimates suggest that this asteroid is between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide.

www.space.com...

Now if it turns out to be 30 metres....

That could be bad; if it does in-fact collide with Earth since Tunguska(Asteroid) Caused a 5-30 megaton explosion and was 60 metres across.

30 metres may cause a significant Air burst..

Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 to as high as 30 megatons of TNT (21–130 PJ),[6][7] with 10–15 megatons of TNT (42–63 PJ) the most likely

Wikipedia - Tunguska Event

Imagine if this were to hit a populated area

I'll guess it could be a 1-5 megaton explosion considering a 60 metre Tunguska caused a 5-30 MT explosion

Although it may not hit a populated area since the Asteroid is coming closest to Earth (So they say) when its over the Arctic

It would be nice if they could refine their "estimate" when it gets closer up until Monday.

Then if it were found to be on a collision course than we could evacuate the area it may hit if they can refine their measurements to pinpoint the exact point of contact.

Lets just hope it doesn't hit Earth.

Don't think we can rule it out of hitting the Earth since they don't seem to know the size yet.


Now lets all remember Tunguska was an extremely powerful "air-burst" purportedly. If this Asteroid turns out to be 20-30 metres it just as well could cause an significant Air Burst; if it turns out that it could collide with Earth.

I know they are saying it won't but since they can't pin the size of it down yet; i'm guessing they are just trying not to cause panic.


Tunguska Event (Explosion

The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi)

These guys want pieces!! Interesting blog wish i could go meteorite hunting!! One this size about every 6 years!

lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com...

"This is an alert issued by this site; we will have a very close visitor, Asteroid 2011 MD, an ~8-18m rock to pass within 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers), about the distance of a round-trip flight from Washington, DC to London, England (NOT far by space standards), on Monday, 27JUN2011! 2011 MD was discovered by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project

I expect we will see many large fireball events from accompanying astroidal debris, just prior to/just after, from today 23/24JUN2011 until 5JUL2011! Have your cameras pointed and ready to capture; and IF you have time get outside and observe and you might get lucky!

"One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average. For a brief time, it will be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope."

Maybe these are the smaller meteors and comets that will skim by us until the big one hits....

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Ryanssuperman

 

If an object is large enough to be problem it is likely to be seen sooner.

I have asked the question before and many said NASA etc were aware of most objects over 2m or something well before a few days..
Just seems they don't really know as much as they say and we have had a few surprises lately..
I mean this new one well could certainly have been a direct hit it's that close..

A difinitive answer as to what NASA can really detect and how early would be great.

I'm still curious if it will be responsible for another Tunguska like event lol

reply to post by DJW001


any chance NASA is wrong?