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Space Science

Asteroid Fly-By on August 18 193

Posted by michael from the don't-drink-the-koolaid dept.
ke4roh writes "An asteroid will fly near the planet and be visible with binoculars from the northern hemisphere August 18, so says this article. Astronomers say it will cross the sky at 8 degrees per hour and fade out of view as it approaches the sun and hence goes through its various phases - full, gibbous, half... down to nothing. Such a show only comes about twice a century, so take a look before it disappears!" Another reader sends in a few useful links: "Here's the complete article from the folks at NASA Space Science with extra links including details on the astreroid's trajectory."
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Asteroid Fly-By on August 18 More

Asteroid Fly-By on August 18

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  • And .. (Score:3, Funny)

    by JPriest ( 547211 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @01:26AM (#3990532) Homepage
    .. I am sure NASA has an oil drilling team on stand by as we read this.

  • For everything else.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by cdf12345 ( 412812 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @01:33AM (#3990546) Homepage Journal
    pair of decent binoculars: $60
    tank of gas to drive to dark location: $20
    Lawn blankets: $15

    The expression on your face as you realise some NASA mathmatican forgot to carry a one......priceless

  • Leonid (Score:2, Interesting)

    by rigelstar ( 243170 )
    The Leonid meteor shower was a great way for me to introduce my 6 and 3 yr old to astronomy. It was a night I will remember forever, as they will too hopefully. They still talk about the "stars falling from the sky".

    My kids are actually really excited about this event. There is nothing betting then getting kids into science then direct experience.
    • Last sentence should read:

      There is nothing better then direct experience to get kids into science.

      Really I dont even understand what I wrote above. Very odd.
      • Actually it should read:
        There is nothing better THAN direct experience to get kids into science.
        Why do people make this mistake over and over?
        • Why do people make this mistake over and over?

          Because it is NOT taught in schools and people do not even hear about it until the /. grammar nazis come at them.

          I am seriously beginning to think that this 'issue' only exists on /. and that there is no such word as 'than' in real life. . . .
    • ITYM;
      "There is nothing betting? Then getting kids into science! Da."

  • oh no (Score:1, Funny)

    by Troll on ice ( 569367 )
    it's coming from the vicinity of an ugly planet...a bug planet
    • Negative, private

      Those you mention are known to hit South America, and this one is going for the northern hemisphere.

      Either way, nothing the mobile infantry can't solve

  • Astronomers at play (Score:3, Funny)

    by tuxedo-steve ( 33545 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @01:41AM (#3990563)
    From the spacedaily.com article:
    Such data result in impressive 3D maps of asteroids, which have often
    surprised astronomers with their weird shapes. Some prove to be binary systems (one space rock orbiting another) and one even looks like a dog bone.
    Why is it that I'm picturing a couple of ageing hippy astronomers, passing around a joint and checking out the skies?

    ``Whoa, dude, that's rock's shaped really weird...''
    ``Yeah... looks like a dog bone or somethin'...''
    *toke* *toke*
    ``Heh heh... check out Uranus...''

    No, probably not. :)

  • photo realistic sky generator software (Score:4, Informative)

    by kbroom ( 258296 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @01:48AM (#3990576) Homepage
    Stellarium [stellarium.free.fr] is an impressive piece of free software for Linux and Windoze that renders the sky at any given time given your coordinates.
    I bet it will make it much easier for the untrained people to find the asteroid in the sky (considering its trayectory [nasa.gov].

    • Re:photo realistic sky generator software (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      O noble and wise Gurus of Linux, I, a worthless n00b, throw mineself at your feet, and request that thou wouldst condescend to assist me, for my intellect is very small and knows not of such things as thou doeth.

      Say, O Wise Ones, why is it that when I attempt to configure this illustrious program, I am told such blasphemous lies as "GL not found - please install GL or MesaGL" when there doth exist a /usr/include/GL on my humble system and I hath installed every Mandrake cooker even containing the word "Mesa" at www.rpmfind.net?

      Art there demons in mine computer? Please help Geeks that Knoweth Many Things.

      • Re:photo realistic sky generator software (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        /usr/include/GL contains the OpenGL development headers. Check if libGL.so (or libGL.so.[something]) exists in /usr/X11R6/lib/

        If not, you haven't installed Mesa. Plus, unless you've installed XFree86 4.[something], chances are you'll only get software rendering, which is just as slow on Linux as on Windows.

        If the file exists, try typing "ldconfig -v" as root. This forces an update of the cached library path information (but rpm should have done that automatically already...)

        Some badly-compiled programs might be hard-coded to look for libGL.so in nonstandard positions - type "ldd /path/to/program" to get a list of the libraries a program has been linked against.

        N.B. Where I have used [something], it is more conventional to use "x" e.g. 4.x or libGL.so.x, a bit like high-school maths variables

        Also, while the above may sound convoluted, be thankful that you _can_ at least do this on Linux - on Windows, your choices would most likely come down to "reinstall".
        • Some badly-compiled programs might be hard-coded to look for libGL.so in nonstandard positions

          Thankfully Window's has this handy little thing called a "path" statement that allows me to shove a library, dll, ocx, or whatever else, on any damn well mappable device, drive, location, or anything else that can store bits and bytes, and programs won't know the difference.

          I haven't gotten a "DLL not found" error in years, well, except for when I haven't installed something. :-D

          People have to standardize on crap, the Mac darn nearly one-ups even the PC for this one, yeesh.

          Though in all fairness, many programs on Windows are responsible for carrying along their own GL drivers and such, and for a long time many even went so far as to carry along an installer for DirectX just to make sure everything ran smoothly, or at least ran at all. :-D
      • Say, O Wise Ones, why is it that when I attempt to configure this illustrious program, I am told such blasphemous lies as "GL not found - please install GL or MesaGL" when there doth exist a /usr/include/GL on my humble system and I hath installed every Mandrake cooker even containing the word "Mesa" at www.rpmfind.net?

        Check the file config.log. It tells you what went wrong.

        I got that same error message, and when I checked the file, it was complaining that it can't find some pthread_xxx functions. I tried "LDFLAGS=-lpthread ./configure; make" and it worked (Debian woody).

        However, when I started it, it segfaulted (in some PNG loading routines). (And yes, I'm too lazy to make a bug report, especially as I should be working.)

    • Re:photo realistic sky generator software (Score:4, Informative)

      by plaa ( 29967 ) <sampo.niskanen@i k i .fi> on Thursday August 01, 2002 @06:41AM (#3991074) Homepage
      Stellarium is an impressive piece of free software for Linux and Windoze that renders the sky at any given time given your coordinates.

      As for a more general star-browsing program, XEphem [clearskyinstitute.com]is great (free for personal use, sources available). It takes a little getting used to, but is very versatile with lots of nifty features, and it allows you to load star catalogs to increase the number of objects it knows.

      Any other astronomy programs somebody would recommend?
    • Celestia [shatters.net] is pretty shweet too... not an astronomy package, but an OpenGL virtual universe that you can fly around in... scriptable so you can record demo movies, etc. Check it out!
    • The requisite link for Windows Users [com.com] /. is going to SOOOO mangle that.

      A simpler version of that link [com.com] but some commercial software will also listed with that link.
    • You just want us all to run a trojanned Makefile that gives you a remote prompt, don't you. We're on to your games.
    • Star chart software in generally is pretty cool, but even someone who can only find the big dipper should be able to find this asteroid given the small map at the "trayjectory" link you provided. All you need to be able to find are Vega and Deneb. Vega will be the brightest star in the sky, and it will be pretty much staight up for most of the Northern Hemisphere at around midnight. Deneb will be the bright star just a short ways off to the north and east of Vega. There will be a 3rd bright star further south and a little farther off, called the eye of the eagle. These 3 bright stars make up the Summer Triangle that region of the night sky. You can't miss it, really. If you just look up and turn around in a circle, the 3 things that will stand out will be the big dipper, the summer triangle, and a bright orange star in the east called Arcturus.

      If you are not in to astronomy a little bit though, seeing the asteroid may well be anticlimactic for you. It will just be a faint star that moves against the backround.
  • Do ya think any geeks will get laid that night, claiming that the asteroid will hit earth and it's "The Last Chance EVER!"?

  • To help them out a little... (Score:3, Funny)

    by HiQ ( 159108 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @02:01AM (#3990614)
    We don't know yet what this asteroid is made of," he continued, "but we'll have a much better idea by the end of August."

    We can be quite sure that is *not* made out of:
    • Gouda cheese
    • recycled AOL CD's
    • Rubber
    • Cookie dough
    • ....
    Maybe that'll help them to narrow the options down :-)

  • Instructions... (Score:3, Funny)

    by G-funk ( 22712 ) <josh@gfunk007.com> on Thursday August 01, 2002 @02:03AM (#3990619) Homepage Journal
    1. Wait for another asteroid story on /. (approx 5 minutes).

    2. Post bruce willis / liv tyler joke (approx 21 seconds).

    3. Sit back and watch the karma roll in (unknown).
  • Someone should make a Celestia module for this like they did posthumously for the crater maker that sneaked by a few months ago.
  • NASA's plan:
    1. Report doomsday asteroid heading for earth
    2. ???
    3. Profit!

  • 8888 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @02:49AM (#3990705) Journal
    It will be visible on August 18th (8/18), move 8 degrees an hour, and have a brightness peak of 8th magnitude?

    The astrologists and numerologists are gonna have a field day with this one. Time to get into the fortune business, being that programming is in the dumps.

    If the damned thing is also shaped like an "8", then we are never gonna hear the end of it.
    • I've done a google search for eight numerology. The most comprehensive result seems to be this link [crystalinks.com]:

      Spiritually eight is the goal of the initiate, having gone through the seven stages. Eight is the number of Paradise regained.

      Eight is solidarity as the first cube and it denotes perfection by virtue of it's six surfaces. There are eight winds and intermediate directions of space. Eight represents the pairs of opposites. The octagon is the beginning of the transformation of the square into a circle and vice versa.

      CULTURAL REFERENCES

      Eight in many cultures and ideologies seems to have similar meanings:
      Felicity
      Perfect rhythm
      Regeneration
      Resurrection

      [...]

      So according to this, it must be a very good day. Now, what does a good day mean in that context? Well, if you want to see it: Good weather!

      Unfortunately you can't as simply google for the astrological side. So the astrological weather forecast remains unknown. Well, a hint might be that the eighth planet is Neptun, which is certainly associated with water. Therefore one might expect rain ...

      • I've done a google search for eight numerology. The most comprehensive result seems to be this link [crystalinks.com]:

        Spiritually eight is the goal of the initiate, having gone through the seven stages. Eight is the number of Paradise regained.

        Eight is solidarity as the first cube and it denotes perfection by virtue of it's six surfaces. There are eight winds and intermediate directions of space. Eight represents the pairs of opposites. The octagon is the beginning of the transformation of the square into a circle and vice versa.

        Numerology only works in languages where letters can also represent numbers, like Hebrew and such -- not English, certainly, nor Chinese, etc.

        When a language's letters are numbers, one of the sets must, obviously, be driven into the unconscious, leaving its other for denotation. All trinities, for example, have the characteristics of Mother-Father-Issue (except, of course, to the Catholic Church, where all three aspects are male....) This includes political theory (thesis, entithesis and dialectic,) economics, most fields of endevour.

        If eight represents the first day of the second week. I will remind the gentle reader that in order to be reborn, one must die.

        • Numerology only works in languages where letters can also represent numbers, like Hebrew and such -- not English, certainly, nor Chinese, etc.

          Unless of course numerology is a phenomenon of ordered sets of symbols. Or if that is too broad for comprehension, then at the very least please acknowledge that to the extent which the roman alphabet can be mapped to the hebraic alphabet, whatever numerological values exist in the latter must also be inherent in the former.

          Please note that I am not offering an opinion on whether numerology provides anything of value.

          • ...please acknowledge that to the extent which the roman alphabet can be mapped to the hebraic alphabet, whatever numerological values exist in the latter must also be inherent in the former.

            Well, I'm not sure why you insist such a mapping is valid ... IF I understand your meaning correctly. As I wrote earlier in the post, it is the unconscious vector in languages like aramaic, I believe, Hebrew for sure, ancient Greek perhaps, but I doubt that Latin Numerals (e.g. LXII)could possibly have been interpreted as Latin words, nor Latin words be homonymous with Roman Numerals. Perhaps the numerals were uppercase to ensure such a separation was made. A similar case can be made for Chinese; where the numbers look like any other ideogram to Westerners, Chinese have no trouble seeing one and the other without driving one meaning into the unconcious. Indeed, from what I know of reading Chinese, numerals and ideograms are identical, but that's another story.

            For clarity, it was (and still is, I trust) the custom among those calligraphers and scholars who are chosen to copy the Torah to add the numerical values of each line as a method of proofreading. So, if you can accept that whatever is not conscious is unconscious, (which seems obvious until one looks deeper) then numbers correlate with words. In Hebrew, this correlation was intended; all words that relate to sitting (chair, squat, sofa, settee, bench, bleacher) have the same, unique root, which has a unique number.

            Since the unconscious, by that definition, is connected to everything and its language seems to be symbolic imagery, then the importance of the contents of our personal unconscious (a fragment of everything, but more than and other than the conscious,) the two denotations can refer to each other, and are useful as meditational tools, as a mandala is useful.

            There is another kind of thinking that is also called `numerology' that is more universally true. I touched on that in my mention of `trinities.' This, clearly, is a different beast, and, just as clearly, is completely symbolic. Its development was the Taro(t).

            The numbers' symbolic values and meaning are the same across the two traditions (taro and kabbala).

            But I cannot support the use of transliterated numbers to Latinized languages (English, etc.)

            If you are interested in my sources, email me. Annamerikin_AT_operamail_DOT_com

  • Yeah, but when we get to that 1 in ~65 million asteriod, I really doubt anyone will be worried about missing the next one... ;)

    Anyone here remember comet Hykataki (sorry bad spelling)? Now that was an impressive show! Not only could you see it perfectly with the naked eye, but through field goggles or a small telescope it was truly a grand vision! The only drawback to having seen that is that everything else is kind of a let down... =:::(

  • Has anyone else entertained the possibility that they are pretty sure it will hit on the 18th, and issued the press release saying it would be visible with binoc's so that the amateur astronomers who think it's on a collision course won't get any press, so as to prevent public panic?
    Didn't think so.
  • [remember 'the left wing is NOT on fire] Relax, there's no danger of a collision. Repeat is you look at the system of Hercules you will see an asteroid that is NOT going to hit the earth.
  • Strange how the articles "every 50 years or so," seems a lot mroe frequent then the "twice a century" the summary stated.

    M@
  • from the article:

    "Flybys like this happen every 50 years or so," says Don Yeomans, the manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program office at JPL. The last time (that we know of) was August 31, 1925, when another 800-meter asteroid passed by just outside the Moon's orbit. In those days there were no dedicated asteroid hunters--the object, 2001 CU11, wasn't discovered until 77 years later. At the time of the flyby, no one even knew it was happening.

    ========
    So uh, why have i heard of 2 just this year that came about a moons distance or less from smacking us? weird.
    • Asteroids zip by the earth fairly often. You can see the closest ones in the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) section of the spaceweather.com [spaceweather.com] page.

      What is unusual about this one is that it will be 8th magnitude, which will be easily visible in binoculars or a telescope even in a slightly or moderately light-polluted area. Most of the asteroids that zip by are 12th-14th magnitude and therefore only visible in moderate to large aperture telescopes with dark skies.

  • Twice a century? Not really (Score:3, Informative)

    by StupendousMan ( 69768 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @08:19AM (#3991459) Homepage
    From the article:

    "Flybys like this happen every 50 years or so," says Don Yeomans, the manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program office at JPL. The last time (that we know of) was August 31, 1925, when another 800-meter asteroid passed by just outside the Moon's orbit.

    Actually, asteroids pass even closer to the Earth every year; most of them are just smaller than 800 meters. In many cases, we don't detect the objects until after they've gone past.

    Here's a list of objects which have come closer to the Earth than 2002 NY40 in the past decade or so. The final column shows the closest approach in terms of the Lunar Distance (between Earth and Moon). For 2002 NY40, that's about 1.3.

    Name or Nominal Date +/- Nominal
    Designation YYYY-mmm-DD HH:MM D_HH:MM (LD/AU)

    1994 XM1 1994-Dec-09 18:54 00:02 0.3
    2002 MN 2002-Jun-14 02:02 00:02 0.3
    1993 KA2 1993-May-20 20:38 00:01 0.4
    1991 BA 1991-Jan-18 17:18 00:01 0.4
    1994 ES1 1994-Mar-15 17:16 00:01 0.4
    2001 BA16 2001-Jan-15 20:29 00:01 0.8
    1999 VP11 1965-Oct-21 18:47 19:28 0.9
    2002 GQ 2002-Mar-31 03:31 00:01 1.1
    1995 FF 1995-Mar-27 03:30 00:01 1.1
    1996 JA1 1996-May-19 16:35 00:01 1.2
    1991 VG 1991-Dec-05 09:22 00:01 1.2
    2002 EM7 2002-Mar-08 00:58 00:02 1.2
    2002 CU11 1925-Aug-31 00:42 05:33 1.2
    2002 CB26 2002-Feb-08 19:11 00:01 1.2
    2000 LG6 2000-Jun-02 21:38 00:07 1.3

    You can generate such lists yourself at The NEO Program's list of Near Earth Objects. [nasa.gov]

    • But you can't see those things with binoculars. You have to drag out the 10 m (394 inch) telescope to make them out. Of those in the list, the biggest one has an H (Vm) of 18.25 (1999 VP11, which came close in 1965), with most numbers in the mid to upper 20's. (Smaller number means bigger rock, so says the legend at the bottom of the table.) 2002 NY 40 has an H (Vm) of 19.03. Perhaps we might have seen 1999 VP11 had we known to look for it.

      Looking at the future table, we might get out the binoculars to see these rocks on the given days:

      1999 AN10 2027-Aug-07

      1999 RQ36 2080-Sep-23
      But there aren't all that many rocks that we know about on the way here.

      Twice a century? Perhaps a little more often - and if we get more funding for watching for the Big One, we'll likely find out about substantially more rocks coming close, so if you miss this one, there's a fair chance you'll catch the next show.

  • Disc of asteroid? Will it show phases? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hyacinthus ( 225989 ) on Thursday August 01, 2002 @09:06AM (#3991745)
    I notice that the article doesn't say anything about whether the asteroid will show an apparent disc from Earth, but this is easy enough to calculate, I suppose--

    Diameter of asteroid: 800 m
    Perigee distance: "1.3 x distance of Moon"
    Distance of moon: 384,000,000 m approx.
    Thus, perigee distance: 500,000,000 m approx.

    Angle subtended by asteroid: 800 / 500,000,000
    = .0000016 radians approx
    = .000092 degrees approx
    = .33 seconds of arc.

    And this is only at perigee, of course.

    By comparison, the disc of Neptune subtends about 3 seconds of arc (don't remember exactly), and just shows a disc in larger amateur telescopes. I don't think anyone with a pair of binoculars is going to be able to discern phases on this asteroid.

    hyacinthus.
    • I don't think anyone with a pair of binoculars is going to be able to discern phases on this asteroid.

      No, but rapid phasing will be discernable as a rapid drop in brightness, equivalent to apparent albedo drop -- much faster and less linear than increasing distance would account for. (Good point that we shouldn't expect to see the phasing, though. Nice to see back of the envelope reasonableness checks!)

      Sigs? We don't need no stinkin Sigs.

  • Ronald Bailey has some interesting musings about humans, asteroid impacts, and Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis.

    He suggests that maybe, just maybe, humans and technology are Gaia's attempts at preventing another catestrophic impact.

    His article is a good read at Reason Online [reason.com].



  • An asteroid will fly near the planet and be visible with binoculars....

    Which planet?

    • Specificity (Score:3, Funny)

      by PhxBlue ( 562201 )

      Which planet?

      What planet do you live on?



      • I happen to live on planet Earth for now. I have no reason to believe, though, that:


        1. The poster also lives on Earth.
        2. All readers are limited to living on Earth.

        This sentence is akin to someone writing, "I have the most powerful xyz in the country." Well, which country?

        • This sentence is akin to someone writing, "I have the most powerful xyz in the country." Well, which country?

          The last time I checked we didn't have a colony on Mars yet, nor do we have intergalactic internet traffic, yet. (wow, would that ping time suck!)

          We do have more than one country on this planet, so that would be one reason to specify which country. Guess what? Most of those countries do have internet access of some kind.

          Let's try not to get too carried away. Next you'll wonder why people don't specify which solar system they are talking about when we say "the solar system", or which moon we're talking about when we say, "the moon".
          • nor do we have intergalactic internet traffic, yet. (wow, would that ping time suck!)

            Not as bad as mine from the middle of nowhere greece!

            Seriously though, any aliens with a whopping big receiver can probably tune into my 802.11b network here
  • I thought this was the NASA site I was visiting, until I saw them call the asteroid a 'big space rock'. Or what?, I was rather suprised to find that the scientists at NASA called the Big Space Rock an 'asteroid'. I don't get it. I thought these were the sort of people who would try and sue you for calling it that. I now apologise for my light and probably very offensive use of the term 'sue'. I'm sure they wouldn't dream of suing anybody. Don't sue me.

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