Asteroid to Make Closest Recorded Pass to Earth 455
unassimilatible writes "A 100-ft diameter asteroid will make the closest (26,500 miles, or about 3.4 Earth diameters) pass of earth ever detected in advance today, NASA reports. Asteroid 2004 FH's point of closest approach with the Earth will be over the South Atlantic Ocean. Using a good pair of binoculars, the object will be bright enough to be seen during this close approach from areas of Europe, Asia and most of the Southern Hemisphere. While we are in no danger this time, it is good to know NASA's LINEAR guys are on the job, for when that Death Star-sized object pays us a visit."
Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Death Star was bigger than 100 ft dia! Maybe the miniature Lucas used was that size?
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Interesting)
My biggest fear is that we will be hit by a not-quite planetkiller that will cause enough devastation to ensure the survivors live in misery for the rest of their (short) lives. That would suck.
The big one... (Score:5, Funny)
So that we can all enjoy the peace-of-mind of knowing that we're all about to die, in advance. ;)
Re:The big one... (Score:5, Insightful)
We're all going to die eventually. But throughout all of history, mankind has yearned for the day when we all get to die at the same time. It's not as scary as dying alone, or as scary as the thought the world will go on without us.
Re:The big one... (Score:4, Funny)
Speak for yourself.
Re:The big one... (Score:4, Funny)
I plan to live forever.
*looks at watch*
So far, so good!
Re:The big one... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The big one... (Score:3, Interesting)
Talk about the ultimate episode of survivor.
Re:The big one... (Score:3, Funny)
(Hey, a few megatons of nickel-iron might not make us all rich, but it could defray at least *some* of the expense of saving our lives. Cost recovery is good.)
Re:The big one... (Score:5, Funny)
Kent Brockman: With our utter annihilation imminent, our federal government has snapped into action. We go live now via satellite to the floor of the United States congress.
Speaker: Then it is unanimous, we are going to approve the bill to deflect the aster...
Congressman: Wait a minute, I want to tack on a rider to that bill: $30 million of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts.
Speaker: All in favor of the amended asteroid-slash-pervert bill?
(Congress): BOO!
Speaker: Bill defeated.
Kent Brockman: I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work.
Re:The big one... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm, except that this one was detected Monday [space.com]. 3 days notice isn't enough to do anything. Larger ones should be detected earlier but how much earlier?
Crushing it to small pieces won't help. (Score:3, Interesting)
"Oh - we'll blow it up. That'll make it go away."
Wrong. Mass and inertia are mass and inertia. The results might be a bit different - a dense solid object will tend to penetrate the surface a bbit deeper, but the heat generated from a billion tons of sand tra
Re:The big one... (Score:3, Funny)
I wouldn't worry, if its just an asteroid, Bruce Willis will die to deflect it.
If, however, its a shitload of Vogons, we are fucked.
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
Perhaps you should actually read what it says (Score:3, Informative)
The heading doesn't say the current 100 ft object is Death Star-sized. It says the author is glad LINEAR will be on the job for the time when one that large comes by.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
The death star in Star Wars was able to shatter a planet to pieces. One can calculate that the energy needed to overcome the gravitational pull is about G*rho^2*r^5, where G=the gravitational constant, rho the planet's density, and r its radius. For an earth-sized planet, that amounts to 1e30 J, or 6e13 kg of matter to be converted into energy. If the Death Star were completely consisting of concentrated antimatter, then it would have been 3 km in diameter and be able to fire exactly one shot. Yes, that is more than 100 ft. :)
Lucky (Score:5, Interesting)
It *will* give them a chance to study the thing as it passes, since all the other ones were only detected after they'd gone (and presumably therefore couldn't be easily studied). If it's close enough to see with binoculars, it ought to be possible to resolve quite well in a good optical 'scope.
The other point I guess is that it's only 100 ft across (why not 30m ?) so it would have burnt up on entry into the atmosphere, but still, good to know about these things. An asteroid that big would make quite some bang on entering the atmosphere, I reckon
Simon
Re:Lucky (Score:4, Interesting)
But you do bring up a good point - if this object would have hit Earth, would it have burnt up, or would something dangerous remain?
Much smaller items hit Earth all the time - they don't get burnt up completely. Of course, many end up the size of maybe pebbles or baseballs...
Re:Lucky (Score:3, Interesting)
I imagine that if it were a roughly spherical, dense, metallic object it would have a good chance of hitting the surface.
Re:Lucky (Score:2)
Re:Lucky (Score:3, Interesting)
Little objects like a grapefruit
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Interesting)
And shock waves aren't sound, so they can move quite quickly. The air itself would be moving at hypersonic speeds, mixed with vaporized solid matter from ground zero. Dust, really fast dust, and gravel.
Re:Lucky (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, from an explosion like that, you'll get radiation -- X rays and such from the high temperature plasma. Just not us much radiation (no neutrons) as from a nuke, and no fallout. (Well, not radioactive fallout. Plenty of dust.)
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Interesting)
This one is flying pretty darn close for comfort.
Re:Lucky (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Informative)
And as Skylab wasn't going as fast, it wasn't heated up so much in the atmosphere, so more bits of it reached the surface than most meteorites.
Re:Lucky (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Informative)
Taken from the following NASA article. [nasa.gov]
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Interesting)
No he's not.
It depends if it solid rock. many stony asteroids are apparently spongy having once contained volatiles that have subsequently been lost to space. These fragile objects will disintegrate in the atmosphere as atmospheric deceleration crushes them.
Its for this reason that carbonaceous chondrite meteorites - the black ones with the exciting organic compounds are relatively rarer on Earth than their abundance in space would suggest. We're regularly encountering them, they just don't make it through to the surface.
Having said that a 25m chunk of anything disintigrating in the atmosphere would produce a blast in the high kiloton, low megaton range. One of these smashing into a city would be a catastrophe.
And they seem to be more common than we think - there is obviously Tunguska in 1908, but then there are reports of something exploding over the Amazon basin in the 1930s, the more than 100 small impacts that hit Sikhote-Alin in Russia in 1947 and the most recently uncovered biggish impact at Wabar in Saudi Arabia - a Hiroshima-sized explosion in either 1863 or 1891 (there is no agreement on the date, since Arabic scholars saw two bright meteors heading in that direction on different dates, it's only recently that scientists have been able to determine the relative youth of the Wabar craters).
Best wishes,
Mike.
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Informative)
The meteor that made Barringer Crater in Arizona (1.6k across and nearly 200m deep) was ~45m in diameter -- only about 50% wider and roughly twice the mass of the one detected. This rock _could_ have spoiled someone's day....
Re:Lucky (Score:5, Insightful)
If both bodies were the same shape the larger would have eight times the volume.
As for mass, Barringer was definitely iron which makes it comparitively rare - less than 6% of observed meteorite falls are iron, yet they make up over 80% of collected meteorites. The latter number is easy to explain - iron meteorites don't look anything like rocks found on Earth, the much more common stony meteorites (which form over 80% of all observed falls) are very hard to distinguish from the stuff on the ground.
More than likely this is a stony body which would give it a much lower density - round about 3.6 gcm-3 as opposed to 7.9 gcm-3 in iron meteorites.
Having said that - a lump of stone that size hitting the Earth would still be comparable to a hydrogen bomb going off - as you say it would have spoiled a whole lot of people's days.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Re:Lucky (Score:4, Informative)
If both bodies were the same shape the larger would have eight times the volume.
Er, 1.5^3 = 3.375, not eight. Other than that you're doing fine
Solar system collisions simulator (Score:5, Informative)
copper
Some Deductions (Score:3, Informative)
Man-made objects that come down are very light, hollow and fairly slow. Asteroids and comets are guaranteed to be the opposite.
Asteroids are 2 different types: metallic, stony and finally "carbonaceous chondrite". The metallic are essentially chunks of nickel-iron. The stony are just rock. And the CC types are rocky but composed significantly of some ices and
Re:Lucky (Score:3, Interesting)
For those too lazy to click the link, this is the relevent quote from the press release.
Yay! (Score:5, Funny)
Is the asteroid construction-equipment yellow, with lots of lumps?
It's the one you don't see or hear that gets you (Score:5, Funny)
If you hear the gunshot, the bullet didn't kill you.
If you smell the engine burning, the car wreck didn't kill you.
If you are still reading, the asteroid missed.
Bennifer, You're our only hope!?-SarcarticVersion (Score:2, Informative)
Impact risks (Score:3, Informative)
Also, for information on assessment of the
impact risks using the Torino Scale, which is
kinda like the Richter Scale for impact risk,
see: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/
And when this is a threat we will... (Score:2, Funny)
At which point we will hide behind our moon and send a squadron of George Bush sponsered space monkeys to penetetrate it's interior and fire photon blasters into a two meter hole to destroy it and save the earth.....
Re:And when this is a threat we will... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And when this is a threat we will... (Score:2, Funny)
Why not 6 ft? :D
Oh Great... (Score:2, Insightful)
But ... isn't it tracking? (Score:2, Funny)
Hollywood special effects must have made a mistake this time around.
And if... (Score:5, Interesting)
I highly doubt we will be told about it. Instead, our world leaders will gather in a cave somewhere with their mistresses and 500 years worth of refried beans...that ought to keep the human race going.
-Grump
Re:And if... (Score:5, Funny)
Come to think of it, I can't think of a better fate for our 'leaders'.
Re:And if... (Score:2)
And don't forget plenty of Rico's nacho cheese [ricos.com]. It's the profitmaker!
Re:And if... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:wonderful... (Score:5, Funny)
um and? (Score:2, Funny)
oh wait... screw that. If I knew the end of time was coming I'd l00t! Cuz that's what all good capitalist swine do!
Tom
Re:um and? (Score:3, Funny)
Crikey, that puts a 2km cycle to work in perspective. No wonder I'm always turning up late!
100km? (Score:2)
Dude, you need to get out more often. 100km is about an hour's worth of driving at highway speeds (or about 40 minutes worth if there aren't any cops out.)
Basically, you're off by about three magnitudes: Jupiter isn't 140km in diameter, it's around 143,000km.
Dammit (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Dammit (Score:3, Funny)
Wouldn't it suck if the world was really going to end and no girls showed up to your orgy-party? Order your REALDOLLS today while there's still time!
Gravitational Effects? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Gravitational Effects? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gravitational Effects? (Score:3, Insightful)
You want to know (Score:3, Funny)
Are you serious?
100 foot diamater. Thats smaller than bunker hill.
20 busses parked together and loaded with people from Overeaters Anonymous would probably have more mass...
Re:Gravitational Effects? (Score:5, Informative)
26500 miles is around 4000 times further away from the surface of the earth than the 35,000 feet at which planes fly.
So the gravitational effect this rock will have at the surface of the earth is around the same as the effect from a 3kg bag inside a plane flying overhead. Probably not noticable.
Re:Gravitational Effects? (Score:3, Insightful)
Tides are caused by the gravitational effect of the sun and the moon on the whole surface of the earth, not on a single point. Let's assume a flat distribution of water on earth's surface. Gauss says that the gravitational force applied to a sphere is equal to the force applied to the same mass positioned at the center of the sphere.
Now, the relevant comparison wou
Re:Gravitational Effects? (Score:3, Informative)
If you were standing on the
Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Sort of puts our achievements into perspective...
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Funny)
Either there's an ever increasing number of asteroids coming ever closer to Earth (unlikely methinks) or this is truly indicative of how blind we have been all thse years to what was happpening in space.
Or God is sending us warning shots across the bow.
Hey! (Score:5, Funny)
Great. Now even the Universe hates America.
Re:Hey! (Score:2)
Re:Hey! (Score:3, Funny)
Jeroen
Alien Rock (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Alien Rock (Score:3, Funny)
This is sserious (Score:5, Informative)
The International Astronomical Union's (http://www.intastun.org/) list of 108 known ''potentially hazardous objects,'' or PHOs.
Most of the asteroids that could strike the Earth and cause a global catastrophe have not yet been found. For the year 2028 (or any other year) the chances of an unknown asteroid hitting the Earth are much greater than the chances of this particular asteroid hitting. If an unknown asteroid should hit us, we would likely have no warning at all. The first we would know of the danger is when we saw the flash of light and felt the ground shake. At the current rate of discovery, it will take more than a century to find 90% or more of the objects this large with Earth-crossing orbits. For better or for worse, the astronomers who carry out these searches and orbit calculations work in the public eye. The idea that a threatening asteroid could be kept secret (or that anyone would want to keep it secret) is ludicrous.
For further information see the NASA asteroid and comet impact hazard website at:
also to be noted (Score:2, Interesting)
THE SAGA OF ASTEROID AL00667 = 2004 AS1
Brian G. Marsden (from CCNet, 15 January 2004)
"That this latest PHA should have generated so much heated discussion on numerous mailing lists and the internet on the basis of four observations covering a time interval of one hour on the morning of Jan. 13 is surely quite amazing. On the routine arrival of the night's LINEAR data at the Minor Planet Center at 5:15 p.m. EST that day, the usual computations on them were quickly done, a
Stock up on Cambels Soup (Score:2, Funny)
Damn it, (Score:5, Funny)
I always wanted a seaview from my city apartment.
How far away? (Score:3, Informative)
If "feet" or "earth diameters" are not your preferred units of measurement, what the article is trying to say is that the asteroid is about 90m in diameter and will pass the earth at a distance of about 42600 km.
Re:How far away? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How far away? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How far away? (Score:3, Interesting)
Any object approaching from angles significantly above or below the equator will have only a very small chance of nailing a geostationary satellite.
Distributed computing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Distributed seeing (Score:3, Informative)
Amatuer astronomers continue to make significant contributions to the field. It was an amatuer who first noticed that al0667 might hit the earth and it was another amatuer who recorded the key observation that placed the same object on a safe trajectory. If you're serious about wanting to he
I am so happy ! (Score:3, Funny)
What are they going to do ? Send Bruce Willis up to save us ?
The real threat of these small ones (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine now that this penetrated the atmosphere over, say, North Korea, or the Sea of Japan, or somewhere over India/Pakistan. It is not much of a stretch to suggest that this might precipitate a limited nuclear exchange. Not a for-sure, but enough of a "could-be" that somebody's day could be ruined.
This is why it is important to look for (small) potentially hazardous objects - not because they will (directly) cause the extinction of the human race, but because they could precipitate an all-too-human conflict, just out of ignorance.
Note also that, as good a job as LINEAR and others do, there is a class of asteroids that are damn hard to see form the ground - the "Aten"-class asteroids, which orbit mostly inside earths orbit and thus come at us from out of the sun. These ones also need to be catalogued and a watchfull eye kept out for.
So, when people start to ask the value of asteroid hunting, bring up these ideas. Sadly, nuclear war is a much more real threat to most people compared to mass extinction.
This one *does* orbit inside the Earth's orbit. (Score:2)
The JPL web page about this asteroid [nasa.gov] gives a diagram of its orbit, and it is mostly within the Earth's orbit. They don't say whether the picture is the "before" or "after" picture --- the pass near Eart
slide rule, anyone? (Score:2)
Makes me hope Paul at the lab made good grades in math:P
3 earth diameters.. that's close enough to .. (Score:2, Insightful)
Upon closer examination... (Score:2)
100 ft may seem small, but .... (Score:4, Informative)
From what I am reading in the articles on the net, 100 feet can still create some serious, albeit localized damage. If this bad boy were to hit over the ocean, probably not much, but over land, it could cause serious local destruction. Anyone out there serious about their astronomy?
The Tunguska Blast [sciam.com] over Siberia was an object about 100 meters in diameter. Sure it burned up in the atmosphere, but it was devastating to the ground anyway. This article also mentions that at about 50 meters, these rocks make it through the atmosphere and can do serious localized damage. So, since 100 feet converts [teaching-e...-japan.net] to is 30.48 meters, this rock would more than likely to have an effect that we will notice on the ground.
For further reading, here is a site [pibburns.com] that has already compiled links and information And, of course, the Yahoo listings [yahoo.com] on Earth Impact information online.
InnerWeb
Re:100 ft may seem small, but .... (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, we don't know much about this object's composition, so it could be iron. If so, and if it were m
Meteor Crater (Score:3, Informative)
Calin (Score:4, Funny)
-George Carlin
A not-entirely offtopic story (Score:5, Funny)
After this happened a couple of times, I told him that I was comfortable playing the odds that an extinction-level event would hold off for the couple of centuries it would take us to actually be able to deal with it, given the scale of geologic time time to human achievement. He nearly spit his beer across the room.
In conclusion: Space is really big, really empty, and some people just need things to worry about.
-Carolyn
So, a question for the astronomers (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd hate to be a (Score:5, Interesting)
luckily we have gen-x'ers (Score:3, Funny)
e.
Almost geosynchronous height! (Score:4, Informative)
Are we on the bullseye in 2053? (Score:4, Informative)
On the other hand, I seem to recall that most previous predicted near misses had us further out from the centroid, and as the orbital data was refined, the area of uncertainty shrank until we were no longer in it. I suspect that reducing the uncertainty without changing the orbital prediction would raise the calculated risk with time.
As I read it the impact energy would be about equal to a 300Kiloton bomb. Not a particularly large hazard area if it came straight down (it probably won't), but it would certainly be big enough to mess up somebody's day. For that matter, has anyone actually run a prediction of what the effects (thermal, weather, etc.) would be from a grazing strike where it travelled parallel to the surface for a long way before breaking up or leaving the atmosphere?
We came pretty close. (Score:5, Interesting)
So basically, to avoid a direct hit, the the timing of of a near-earth-asteroid only needs to be altered by 6 minutes over the course of its orbit(s).
What I can't get over is that we *missed* this asteroid by only 12 to 18 minutes!
That's just crazy.
Re:NASA's on the job. Can they save the world? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:NASA's on the job. Can they save the world? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Training material? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell, we don't even have a booster that could get people to the moon anymore, and even if we still had operational Saturn V's, they still wouldn't boost enough mass out of Ea