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Close Encounters With An Asteroid

skinnybearlyndsay
skinnybearlyndsay Posts: 798 Member
edited October 2024 in Social Groups
Did anyone else get a little excited when they heard about the asteroid? It could have just been me. :)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/opinion/urry-asteroid-earth-risk/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9

Replies

  • helenium
    helenium Posts: 546 Member
    Woah, closer than the moon! Amazing. Jupiter isn't doing its job of being the solar system hoover today.
  • baisleac
    baisleac Posts: 2,019 Member
    Sweet!
  • skinnybearlyndsay
    skinnybearlyndsay Posts: 798 Member
    I was a little bummed that NASA said it would be tough to track and you needed a certain aperture telescope. It would have been nice to see.

    I would say maybe next time, but who knows when that will be? :smile:
  • a_stronger_steph
    a_stronger_steph Posts: 434 Member
    That's a great article - thanks for sharing! I'm actually pretty pleased with CNN for getting Meg Urry (a real, respected astrophysicist) to write that up. Not much of the "ZOMG doomsday!!!" that you almost always get with talk of asteroids. (Not to say that asteroids can't cause ZOMG doomsday!!! scenarios, just that most of the time the potential danger is kind of overplayed).

    I wish observing it wasn't so difficult, too. We have some telescopes here on campus but I don't think any of them are decent enough in size or tracking ability to be able to get a good look. :(
  • AtticusFinch
    AtticusFinch Posts: 1,262 Member
    If everything's ready on the dark side of the Moon, play the 5 tones.

    I was interested in this too when I saw it on the news Monday, but the distractions of the day meant I missed it when it scooted by. It was supposed to be 23:28 over the UK but it was overcast most of yesterday. Any of you see it ?
  • AtticusFinch
    AtticusFinch Posts: 1,262 Member
    I was a little bummed that NASA said it would be tough to track and you needed a certain aperture telescope. It would have been nice to see.

    I would say maybe next time, but who knows when that will be? :smile:

    Think it was every 100 years or it's trajectory is known for the next century with precise accuracy, and it's not going to hit us. It's the ones we can't see that are the worry, I think we need the ISS or dedicated resources stationed to look down our blindspots.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    We've got a falling Russian satellite to look out for now!
  • BrettPGH
    BrettPGH Posts: 4,716 Member
    I was a little bummed that NASA said it would be tough to track and you needed a certain aperture telescope. It would have been nice to see.

    I would say maybe next time, but who knows when that will be? :smile:

    Think it was every 100 years or it's trajectory is known for the next century with precise accuracy, and it's not going to hit us. It's the ones we can't see that are the worry, I think we need the ISS or dedicated resources stationed to look down our blindspots.

    I thought I'd heard (and you'll have to forgive me as I can't remember the source, but I don't think it was complete doomsday nonsense) it would be back much sooner. And that our gravity might affect it's trajectory and bring it closer to hitting us next time it comes around.

    How far out does the Earth's gravity pull extend? I have no idea.

    And if I'm just regurgitating bad science meant to alarm people please smack me and send me to the corner. :embarassed:
  • skinnybearlyndsay
    skinnybearlyndsay Posts: 798 Member
    NASA has a video posted of the asteroid. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/yu55-20111111.html

    The distance of Earth's gravity field is a little complicated. It depends on the mass of the opposing "body" as to how much of Earth's gravitational force affects it, plus the distance. I found a graphic that can explain it better than I can. http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/semester1/c17_field.html

    Yeah, our gravitational field probably altered the asteroi'd trajectory a bit, but since the mass of the asteroid is much smaller than, say the Moon's, it wouldn't have been much. That asteroid also has Venus and Mars to deal with. :)
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