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Author Topic: Asteroid near misses this week  (Read 5904 times)

Big Frank

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Asteroid near misses this week
« on: February 08, 2018, 10:57:35 PM »
On Tuesday, an asteroid passed within 114,000 miles (184,000 kilometers), slightly more than halfway to the moon. Another asteroid is headed our way — the second this week — but there's no need to worry.

The newly discovered space rock will pass within 39,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) of Earth on Friday afternoon. That's less than one-fifth the distance to the moon.

A whopper asteroid named Apophis — estimated at approximately 1,000 feet or more than 300 meters — will pass at just one-tenth the distance between Earth and the moon in 2029.

If Apophis does hit the Earth it shouldn't be an extinction level event, if that makes you feel any better. I've read a lot of different information and opinions about it. Someone said it would make a crater 2 km wide and 1/2 km deep. Someone else said it could kill hundreds of millions of people.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/asteroid-coming-close-friday-worry-safe-52939065
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Rastus

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2018, 06:35:56 AM »
Extinction event is relative...if you are under that bitch when if drops you'd have a different outlook about extinction!

Sky & Telescope has more details at:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/asteroid-2018-cb-graze-earth-friday-watch-online/

There is a Virtual Telescope Project that will be live streaming the event Friday afternoon.
https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2018/02/05/asteroids-2018-cc-2018-cb-close-encounters-live-observing-session-6-9-feb-2019/

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Solus

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2018, 02:15:03 PM »
So we are safe for at least the next 11 years...and I will have plenty more to worry about till then...

I'll put it on my ToDo list to start worrying in 2025...

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Big Frank

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2018, 03:22:42 PM »
Well, it's Friday afternoon and we're still alive, so it must have missed. If I'm still around in 11 years I'll pay more attention to the near miss (I hope) of Apophis. The calculated trajectory has changed several times since it was discovered, but it currently looks like it will miss Earth, this time.

This was posted at https://www.express.co.uk/ last June:

Astronomers have calculated the Apophis asteroid will speed past Earth on April 13, 2029, at just 18,600 miles away – a hair’s width in astronomical terms. To put that into perspective, the moon is 238,900 miles away.

Due to the close proximity in which the giant space rock will pass, scientists believe the near-miss will alter the asteroid’s orbit, which could lead it to collide with Earth in the future.

If the 27 billion kg asteroid were to hit Earth, scientists calculate that it would leave a crater over a mile wide and a staggering 518 metres deep.

However, most worryingly, the impact would be equivalent to 880 million tons of TNT being detonated – some 65,000 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.
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THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

Solus

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2018, 04:28:39 PM »
That is close....

The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901 mi

And the radius diameter is 7,917.5 mi

A geosynchronous orbit, where fixed position satellites orbit is 26,199 mi

So that 18,600 miles in inside the orbit of some of our satellites....
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Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
—Patrick Henry

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
— Daniel Webster

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #5 on: Today at 03:08:42 AM »
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Timothy

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2018, 05:11:16 PM »
Diameter is 7917, not radius.
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Solus

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2018, 07:07:42 PM »
Quote from: Timothy on February 09, 2018, 05:11:16 PM
Diameter is 7917, not radius.
My error
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Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
—Patrick Henry

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
— Daniel Webster

Big Frank

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2018, 11:20:24 PM »
The 26,199 mile radius from the center of the Earth to geosynchronous orbit, minus the Earth's radius of 3,963 miles at the equator, puts the satellites 22,236 miles above mean sea level. I knew they were 22,000 some miles away but had to look it up. If Apophis passes 18,600 miles away from the Earth that would put it 3,636 miles inside of geosynchronous orbit. It would only be about 2.35 Earth diameters away, whether you go by the equatorial diameter of 7,926 miles, the mean diameter of 7,918 miles, or the polar diameter of 7,900 miles. 2.35 Earth diameters is microscopic on the scale of the universe. In other words, way too close for comfort.

And that's if those calculations prove correct and it doesn't get a little gravitational nudge. The universe contains 4.9% ordinary matter, and the other 95.1% is dark energy plus dark matter. Did the calculations for Apophis' trajectory take all of that invisible matter and energy into account? Is the theory of of dark matter and dark energy right in the first place? No one knows for sure.
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""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

alfsauve

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2018, 02:06:45 PM »
But all the geosynchronous sats are only over the equator.   
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alfsauve

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Re: Asteroid near misses this week
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2018, 02:08:54 PM »
Quote from: Solus on February 09, 2018, 02:15:03 PM
So we are safe for at least the next 11 years...

No, we're not safe.   These last two asteroids were only discovered a few days out.    Apophis is rather larger and hence it's been detected way out there.   

Tomorrow they could discover one coming in for a direct hit in just a couple of days. 
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