Science Mag has a LiveChat today at 3pm EDT about YU55

"Live Chat: The Asteroids Are Coming!"

On 8 November, a 400-meter-wide asteroid dubbed 2005 YU55 will zip past Earth within just a few hundred thousand kilometers. This flyby will give astronomers and the public alike a rare look at what scientists call near-Earth objects. At the same time, satellite data, including information from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, has illustrated the diversity of such rocks in orbit dangerously close to our planet. What do scientists expect to learn in the wake of 2005 YU55's flyby? What do astronomers know about the abundance and behavior of near-Earth objects? And what dangers do these space rocks present to human civilization?

Join us for a live chat about near-Earth objects at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 3 November, on this page. You can leave your questions in the comment box below before the chat starts.

Anyone who's interested in joining the LiveChat, or just wants to post a question before the chat begins can go here:

Live Chat

I think this live chat thing is a great idea that they came up with and may help to quelsh any questions and/or fears people have about this asteroid. Maybe they should have done something like this with Elenin ?

Not sure if I'm going to join in because I don't really have any queries, but I will definately be watching it to see how it all goes down.

Tee off time in 1 hour...
Cheers !

Thanks for the heads up.
No pun intended.
I am there now.

Cool, I'm in the chat session right now.
I have quite a few questions, some of them I could probably google to figure out, but this is more fun =D

My question I sent in was, How long has YU-55 been on it's current path through our solar system.
I wonder how many people are flinging questions at Scott and Donald..

Well they answered that one, they say thousands of years but it's hard to tell because of the perturbation of other planet's from time to time. Cool.

I'm guessing there's probably a ton of crazy questions being tossed at these guys right now and they're having to filter through them before deciding what to answer.

Not an easy job.

Not sure if I'm too keen on this controlled chat thing, it seems to be moving along very slowly.

But then again, I guess a "free-for-all" would easily get out of control.

Well, I asked a very logical question about the trajectory of this asteroid, and they did not post the question. My question was, if its orbital stability is listed as a 3(slightly incalcuable) then how are they sure of the exact trajectory of this asteroid. Also secondly, when was the last actual recorded spotting of this rock and is it still on the current oribital path that was previously stated?

And for some reason they will not allow my question to be asked, instead they are giving all the same boring info that people already know and asking even stupider question that are irrelavent. Controlled chat all right cause they dont want the people to be able to ask the important question. Bunch of BS!

Also its bull plop that there are 5 replies and 5 flags for something that is a controlled chat... me thinks people are trying to mislead other people... but wait, thats not what ATS is about is it?

reply to post by fishman1985


You've completely lost me with this comment... care to clarify what you're trying to say ?
Thanks.

Eh nice find you come out with interesting stuff

I am rather perturbed that 'Scott' made that excruciating then/than mistake . He supposed to be a nasa scientist

How does time relate to comparison ? And so many do it ? Off-topic I know

reply to post by fishman1985


Just for that, S+F for the OP. You doomers are funny.

Thankfully, we only have to wait a week to confirm that this was ANOTHER non-event.

Interesting... it probly won't offer much new information. I wonder why they would even bother, when everything is available by other means?

Anyways... I like the avatar CS...

Yes, I was a little dissappointed with the Q&A...

There was one question about what the speed of YU55 was and they never actually answered the question properly in my opinion. Just said something about varying speeds depending on the distance from the sun.

From my understanding, YU55 will be passing earth at around 10 miles per second ?
Why couldn't a NASA scientist answer this one... surely they have an idea at what speed it'll be passing by at ?

reply to post by CranialSponge


That was probably asked enough times , how fast will it travel , I asked that too .

They dont want to say (IMHO) because we will know they havent got a cats chance in hell of landing anything on it . Maybe they crash in from in front , or try and catch it up .

Either way = fail . Much like the Lunar Landings = FAIL .

The earth travels at a sickening 27000 miles an hour around the sun , apparently . The moon then is going even faster .

Just an FYI:

For those of you who missed the live chat, you can still click on the link in the OP and then click on the "replay" button to read the Q&A's.

I'm not sure how long they'll offer this replay thing or whether or not there'll be a transcript offered at a later date, but if there is I'll post it here for anyone who wants to read it later.

reply to post by CranialSponge

Congratulations on your first thread CranialSponge, good start. S&F

I was thinking of taking part in the Q&A on this YU55 meteorite, but than I thought, what for. I've become so cynical of the powers that be no matter what level they are at. To me, the whole system is nothing more than a sham and has been for the past 235 years.
A lot of hype was built up around Elenin, mind you we haven't fully past the tail yet so there is a possibility of seeing the night sky light up, but then again it could be YU55 that lights up the sky. Really, who really knows the full truth about anything. TPTB got real good handle on info.
Anyway, to you.

I agree, I knew going in with the few questions I had that I might not get straightforward answers.
Let them be deceitful or dishonest, it will still paint them a color, which in the end will help me figure out who are the shills and who is on the up&up with info.