Asteroid 4179 Toutatis Will Miss Earth, This Time

EtherAlchemist writes "National Geographic News reports in this story that a giant, peanut shaped asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will pass within 1 million miles of Earth on Weds, the 29th. When it does, it will be the closest any known object of this size (3 miles) has passed near Earth in this century. No worry about impact yet, it should pose no threat until at least 2562. An interesting note: the asteroid believed to have caused Earth's biggest mass extinction is thought to have been between 3.7 and 7.5 miles as reported here in 2001." 2004 FU162 came closer, but is a much smaller object.

Wow, the biggest this century!!!

[sgant]

When it does, it will be the closest any known object of this size (3 miles) has passed near Earth in this century.

Wow! You mean to tell me it's the largest object to pass near here in over 3 years!!!

OK, one of those things that sounds impressive, then when one thinks a little, isn't all that big a deal...

Damn

[Anonymous Coward]

So close to not having to pay next months rent

we're safe

[Anonymous Coward]

the asteroid runs linux, so we dont have to worry about it crashing, right nerds?

By toutatis...

[ch3]

... seems the sky missed us this time [frithjof.de]! ;)

Peanut-shaped?

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, would like to welcome our new oven-roasted overlords... [planters.com]

Here's the proof. [gearlive.com] Free 27" flatscreen TV. [freeflatscreens.com]

peanut of death

[IAR80]

Forget Death star check the Death Peanut.

Re:Painting Your Way to Safety

[AlphaJoe]

Didn't you see Armageddon? You can't do that...we must send Bruce Willis to mine holes and gently plant the explosives. Geez...

Re:seems to be an awful lot of 'close calls'

[Tony Hoyle]

Not a lot really. We don't really have the technology.

We wouldn't get months probably. Days, perhaps. If we're really unlucky, hours.

That would make one hell of a slashdot headline while it lasted, though.

peanut asteroid

[Anonymous Coward]

the giant, peanut shaped asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will pass within 1 million miles of

I hope it doesn't miss the chocolate bar asteroid known only in my hopes and dreams

Re:what if...?

[PhrostyMcByte]

500 years? let the apes deal with it.

That's too bad...

[theraccoon]

Guess that means I still gotta go to work on Monday.

sigh.

Asteroid, or volcano? Which is it?

[Judg3]

An interesting note: the asteroid believed to have caused Earth's biggest mass extinction is thought to have been between 3.7 and 7.5 miles as reported here in 2001

I was just watching something the other day on the History channel about a recent find. A huge lot of dinosaurs buried under meters of volcanic ash - sort of hinting a giant volcano blast may have done all the dirt work.

I tried to google for some more info, but came up empty-handed. I did find this article [findarticles.com] though, about dinosaurs found in Alaska. It states that if they had managed to adapt to an arctic environment, then the "nuclear winter" effect of a large meteor hitting earth may not hold as much water.

Then again, I doubt we'll ever truly know - maybe the dinosaurs just got tired of living and went the way of the Heaven's Gate members.

FU162

[djtripp]

That is quite the appropriate letter sequence for an asteroid that comes close to earth.

Re:Considering

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why its never happened before ... look at all the dinosaurs over there ...

Orientation never repeating exactly?

[renehollan]

The asteroid rotates around one axis once every 5.4 Earth days and, in turn, rotates around the other axis once every 7.3 Earth days. As such, "the orientation of the asteroid never repeats exactly," Ostro said.

I call bull.

It isn't clear to what the orientation is compared (...an observer on a fixed point on Earth?, ...a fixed point in the asteroid's orbital plane?), but at some point it will have the same orientation with regard to anything in a periodic motion relative to it.

Let's take the simple example of the plane of it's orbit (ignoring pertubations caused by other objects: if you consider them, you'd come to the conclusion that no objects ever repeat their orientation toward one another, since there must be some object that moves in a non-periodic way relative to any of them -- even within periodic systems, the N-body problem has not been shown to have perfectly periodic solutions):

It rotates on two axis with a period of 5.4 and 7.3 Earth days. Let's assume those figures are exact. It thus rotates ten times on each axis in 54 and 73 days, respectively. In 54*73 = 3942 days, it rotates on one axis 54*73/5.4 = 730 times, and on the other 54*73/7.3 = 540 times. Nice, whole numbers, reflecting the same orientation toward the plane of it's orbit (around the sun).

Dividing by 10, in 394.2 days it rotates 73 times around one axis and 54 time around the other. As 54 and 73 are coprime (sharing no common factors except 1), this is the shortest interval in which it repeats it's orientation with respect to the plane of it's orbit around the sun.

We can use the same process to compare it's location in it's orbit around the sun, with the Earth's orbit around the sun, and the position of a person on the surface of the Earth, as it rotates about it's axis. We could even account for the precession of the Earth's axis if we wished. In every case, there is some interval in which the person has rotated about the Earth's axis an integral number of times, the Earth has revolved around the sun an integral number of times, the asteroid has revolved around the sun an integral number of times, and has rotated about each of it's axis an integral number of times. This only fails if one of the periods (of rotation or revolution) is irrational. But, even then, you can find the interval between repeated orientations to an arbitrary degree of precision.

Re:seems to be an awful lot of 'close calls'

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, 2 days after it strikes slashdot will read:
Asteroid going to strike earth.

You're new here, right?

*Drewel*

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh no! A gigant... mmmmmm, peanuts....

Re:Painting Your Way to Safety

[Ikester8]

...all the little bits would have the same total velocity as the original asteroid

I dunno. My experience with asteroids is that the smaller the chunks, the faster they travel. Same with the flying saucers.

asteroid runs gentoo

[Anonymous Coward]

it actually runs gentoo. It's still compiling as we speak. That's why it avoided us, so it can finish its compile.

Re:seems to be an awful lot of 'close calls'

[johannesg]

Yeah, 2 days after it strikes slashdot will read: Asteroid going to strike earth.

And again another two days later, and yet again after a week. Anyone who survived the impact will be killed by heart failure.

Think of the polls!

"After the impact, I will be..."

[ ] Dead.

[ ] Surviving.

[ ] Cowboy Neal will deflect the asteroid.

"Having only hours to live, I will..."

[ ] Find a beautiful woman and shag her until the earth shakes!

[ ] Post some more on slashdot.

[ ] Read a good book I never had time for before.

[ ] Make sure my backups are in order.

[ ] Position my webcame outside so people on other continents can see it come and watch me die.

[ ] Set up that webcam, find Cowboy Neal, shag him until the earth shakes, then post about it on slashdot, and still have the satisfiction that noone will survive to talk about it.

[ ] Same as above, but then find out the asteroid thing was a hoax.

I hope it's not just me...

[bloxnet]

...but every time I see one of these stories, I think of some extremely long-lived alien warlord interns having a conversation like this:

Braxxis009A - "Idiots! How many times do I have to tell you anthropods even a trillionth of a degree of miscalculation will cause a complete and total miss! Now reload the Meteoro 2000 Planet Blaster XL with another rock and GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME!!!!"

Re:asteroid runs gentoo

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard it's running debian. It's so busy defending itself on slashdot forums and generally making every other debian user look like a moron that it hasn't had time to hit the earth, much less anything else.

Re:Wow, the biggest this century!!!

[metlin]

However, our current programsto track asteroids that might hit the earth is extremely limited.

Hey! Someone tell Bush quick that there are weapons of mass destruction out there!

That would help ;-)

Definitely worth it

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Upon further consideration, I've come to the conclusion that if an asteroid that big did collide with the Earth ... the complete destruction of all life on the planet would be a small price to pay for finally getting rid of Microsoft.

(It's funny. Laugh.)

Re:Painting Your Way to Safety

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't worry too much if there were a two-dimensional asteroid heading for us, as its mass would likely be negligible.

Re:By toutatis...

[Toutatis]

This time I won't demand some human sacrifice as in the good old times for not missing the next time. Sacrificing human money into my account will please me.