February 15, 2013 Asteroid fly-by

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Moonage

Or, better named probably, that really big rock for Valentine’s Day your babe always wanted?

There is no risk of it hitting Earth. BUT, this flyby will be so close it will mess up any future predictions of where it might go. People are already speculating it will hit Earth the next time. But, chances are MUCH more likely it will go spinning out into space or simply get eaten by the Sun. Even IF it did hit Earth, it’s not a life-ending sized rock. Maybe Tunguska sized blast, but even that is doubtful.

Toutatis 2012

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Moonage

On this historic last repetitive day of my lifetime, another significant event is occurring:

Toutatis is no slouch. It’s about 3 miles long and solid rock. And, it’s coming as close to Earth as it will get for about 57 years. If you’re lucky enough to spot it in the sky, your view would look something like this:

From the ground it’s just not terribly exciting. What WOULD be exciting is if it got just a tiny bit closer. Which it will do in November, 2069.

Could Earth be hit like Jupiter?

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Moonage

Sometimes I totally feel like I’m wasting my time here. On July 20th, which was what, ten days ago? I wrote about the impact on Jupiter. That led me to a conversation with a friend who mentioned the Manson Crater in Iowa. This monster hit was so big it obliterated all life in what would the United States in seconds, and all life on North America within hours. The rest of the world was rendered quite uncomfortable for some time after. At first I thought he was referring to the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan, which did pretty much the same thing thousands of years after Manson. But he wasn’t, it was totally different. Neither of the these should be confused with the Tunguska Impact over Siberia. Other than leveling millions of trees over hundreds of square miles, it really was just a minor footnote of an impact. There are plenty of other smaller impacts throughout modern history documented up to this year. In simple terms, it happens all the time. The only thing that makes a difference is size. The one that just hit Jupiter was pretty big. However, we get them occasionally on Earth as well. We’ve had a few near misses in modern history. And, there have probably been a few that did hit that was never documented.

After writing about both Jupiter and the Manson Crater, Livescience felt compelled to write this article today:

Could Earth Be Hit, Like Jupiter Just Was?

Believe it or not, they come to the conclusion that it could indeed happen. It’s just not terribly likely it will happen any time soon as the universe in our neck of the woods isn’t terribly crowded at this time. Don’t tell that to Jupiter tho. However, on the upside, Jupiter and the Sun are our huge vacuum cleaners sucking up all the dirt floating around us. Other than an occasional black eye, it’s hard to do much damage to Jupiter.

Now, if you’re really concerned about this happening any time soon without the news going bonkers about it beforehand, you can subscribe to the Asteroid Watch newsfeed, which I have over there on the sidebar. They even have a handy desktop widget for those so inclined.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 barely missing the Earth

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Moonage

This is cool:

That is a time-lapse gif. Right in the center, you can see a very small, very dim dot, moving. That is asteroid 2009 DD45. It will pass between the Earth and Moon today. It will barely skim where our satellites orbit. It is THAT close! We got basically a two day notice on this one. However, it is very small. One larger than this one hit late last year and no one really noticed. But, it just keeps irking me that we:

can’t find these things sooner.
have absolutely no ability to do anything about them if they did pose a threat.

In this case, if it had been just a teenie weenie bit closer ( in AU’s ), it could have knocked out a satellite or two. If it had been a teenie weenie bit larger, it could have caused some serious damage on Earth.

The Obama administration is trying to ban all weapons in space. I think this is a very unwise decision. I’m not worried about Al Qaida in space. I am however, worried about a lot of stuff already in space coming down on us.

Office of Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Object Preparedness

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Moonage

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who has possibly the longest name in Congress, and who represents California, which is a very long name as well, has taken their comfort level with very long words to the next level by proposing the Office of Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Object Preparedness, as part of the Near Earth Objects Preparedness Act. Now, in the past, I have complained about the obvious confusion created by the fact several world agencies are trying to track NEO’s. So, I am all for this concept of one single entity coordinating research activities. However, you’d think they could come up with something a little easier to print than the Office of Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Object Preparedness. Something like Asteroid Busters I would think would work just as well and not cripple the Earth’s limited resources in the process. I mean, think about it. If you were the receptionist, you’d have to answer every call with “Thank you for calling the Office of Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Object Preparedness. How may I direct your call? En Espanol, Gracias por llamar a la Oficina de potencialmente peligrosos cercanos a la Tierra de objetos de Preparación. ¿Cómo es posible dirigir su llamada? ” God forbid the caller speaks a different language. In the course of answering the call, the hazardous near-Earth object might very well have become a hazardous on-Earth object.

Sometimes it pays to just read the news

Posted on November 13, 2007 by Moonage

Don’t know about you all, but I’ve been following the Rosetta fly-by with some interest for a week or so. The European Space Agency’s web page has been tracking it and updating it’s trajectory publicly for about a month now. It’s pretty much on course for what was set a long time ago. That part of the story is getting pretty mundane at this point.

This part of the story makes it a little more interesting. The Minor Planet Center tracks objects that orbit near Earth. They are part of the International Astronomical Union. This is not to be confused with NASA’s Near Earth Object program. I point this out for a reason. Starting not too long ago, the MPC started tracking 2007 VN84 and warned this thing could get REAL close to Earth. A few days ago, Denis Denisenko in Moscow noticed 2007 VN84 had the exact same trajectory as Rosetta. MPC immediately came to the conclusion 2007 VN84 was indeed Rosetta. Once figuring that out, MPC released the following statement:

The minor planet 2007 VN84 does not exist and the designation is to be retired.

This incident, along with previous NEOCP postings of the WMAP spacecraft, highlights the deplorable state of availability of positional information on distant artificial objects (whether in earth orbit or in solar orbit). The Distant Artificial Satellites Observations (DASO) page lists a number of such objects, but has to be updated on a fairly regular basis from five different sources and data is not always available for the timespans needed. A single source for information on all distant artificial objects would be very desirable.

This just leads me to wonder how Denis could figure it out and not MPC, which is assigned the duty of doing so? And, it also makes me wonder if they bother to read any news at all regarding man-made objects since the Rosetta fly-by has been all over various astronomy sites. I have no dog in this issue, but I knew Rosetta was coming for weeks.

My instinct tells me there are too many agencies doing the same thing and not talking to each other. The last thing we need when researching near Earth objects is beauracratic turf fighting. NEO and MPC need to be one and the same. If the IAU wants to help fund these types of services, then they need to join WITH NEO and not be totally detached from it as they obviously are now. Now, I’m no fan of NEO’s efforts either. But maybe, if they combine the efforts of the two, then we’ll get better information on something this important.

The UN saving us from an asteroid strike?

Posted on February 19, 2007 by Moonage

Some stories just seem to develop a life of their own. Starting on December 26, 2004, I wrote a few articles on 2004 MN4, an asteroid with a remote chance of hitting the Earth:

Without any real change in the strike probabilities, it has resurfaced again:

Circle your calendar. April 13th, 2036 could be a really, really bad day on planet Earth.

A group of astronauts and engineers warns that an asteroid may pass uncomfortably close to Earth that day. The chances it will actually hit are just one in 45,000, but even at those odds, the scientists warn, the United Nations should consider a response.

The United Nations? Now, I think I’ve made my position clear on the United Nations in the past:

Public Opinion View Results

If not, the propensity of the United Nations to waste huge amounts of resources while not aggressively seeking solutions to impending problems means that I do not trust them with the complicated decision of how to nudge an asteroid. The United States has already made successful contact with a comet via Stardust. It was such a non-event that it received very little media notice. Now, that might have “just” been a comet, but, it proved that we already have the capability of making contact, or nudging, an asteroid. The Japanese actually made contact with an actual comet. So, it’s not like we’re re-inventing the wheel here. The technology and capability are already there. All the UN is is a bureaucracy, that’s all. That’s the very last thing we need in dealing with a life-ending threat that is 2004 MN4, now named Apophis.

Pan-STARRS

Posted on August 17, 2006 by Moonage

In December 2004, I bitched and whined about the fact yet another fairly large asteroid zipped right by Earth and no one knew anything about it until after it was leaving. Well, apparently SOMEONE was listening ( or had the same common sense idea I had ). Now the International Astronomical Union is setting up a task force to examine more closely things heading our way. It just always amazed me that people had pondered ways to divert or destroy a large life-ending asteroid, but no one was making any effort to FIND those threats. Now, just maybe, these people at IAU will do the people of planet Earth a real favor and spend some time dealing with real issues and less worrying about the largest known blob in the universe.

And, just in case people forget the ramifications, here’s this movie again of what happens if the IAU once again decides large blobs of gas billions of light years away are more important than rocks meandering through space:

Earth Strikes revisited

Posted on May 19, 2005 by Moonage

A former NASA astronaut will call on the U.S. Congress to evaluate an asteroid with a small chance of hitting Earth in 2036 and suggest lawmakers consider a space mission to monitor the object, SPACE.com has learned. Russell Schweickart arrives here today to make his case. He’ll also ask Congress to assign to a government agency the responsibility of protecting the public from space rocks.The call to action stems from an orbiting hunk of stone that for a few days around Christmas had scientists on the edges of their seats.The asteroid, named 2004 MN4, was found last year. It orbits the Sun but crosses the path of Earth. In December, preliminary observations showed it might strike in 2029, according to NASA scientists. It briefly had the highest odds ever assigned to a possible collision. Further investigation ruled out the 2029 impact scenario, but scientists cannot yet rule out an impact in 2036.

I’m with Russell on this. I have lamented the fact that Earth has experienced numerous close calls with absolutely no lead time or ability to divert or destroy the impending danger. We’re getting pretty good at seeing planets in other solar systems, However, we can’t see things close enough to end our lives immediately. I also think Russell is going the right direction not implying this needs to be a part of NASA. I would prefer to see a new agency that only concerns itself with global disasters and how to deal with and/or prevent them. The mindset is just too different from NASA’s space exploration philosophy.Contact your Representatives and tell them to support Russell Schweickart’s initiative.

Toutatis Pt. 2

Posted on September 27, 2004 by Moonage

JPL, which I have written about here before, has an orbit simulator for Toutatis. Since this is a time sensitive issue, I have taken a screen shot of what will be happening Wednesday, September 30, 2004:

See the label Toutatis? See how it has a kind of greenish hue shadowing it? That greenish hue is the label for Earth. Toutatis and Earth are superimposed on each other. That’s how close, from a stellar perspective, that 3 mile asteroid will be from Earth. If scientists are wrong, it will wipe out an area the size of Europe and the dust cloud will kill all life as we know it.

Moonage Spacedream

It's full of stars

Tag Archives: near-earth-object