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Post by auntym on Oct 22, 2015 15:17:32 GMT -6
www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-spots-the-great-pumpkin-halloween-asteroid-a-treat-for-radar-astronomersOct. 21, 2015
NASA Spots the ‘Great Pumpkin’: Halloween Asteroid a Treat for Radar AstronomersThis is a graphic depicting the orbit of asteroid 2015 TB145. The asteroid will safely fly past Earth slightly farther out than the moon's orbit on Oct. 31 at 10:05 a.m. Pacific (1:05 p.m. EDT and 17:05 UTC). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA scientists are tracking the upcoming Halloween flyby of asteroid 2015 TB145 with several optical observatories and the radar capabilities of the agency's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. The asteroid will fly past Earth at a safe distance slightly farther than the moon's orbit on Oct. 31 at 10:05 a.m. PDT (1:05 p.m. EDT). Scientists are treating the flyby of the estimated 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity, allowing instruments on "spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass. Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 2015, by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Paannamic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui, part of the NASA-funded Near-Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program. According to the catalog of near-Earth objects (NEOs) kept by the Minor Planet Center, this is the closest currently known approach by an object this large until asteroid 1999 AN10, at about 2,600 feet (800 meters) in size, approaches at about 1 lunar distance (238,000 miles from Earth) in August 2027. “The trajectory of 2015 TB145 is well understood," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than about 300,000 miles -- 480,000 kilometers or 1.3 lunar distances. Even though that is relatively close by celestial standards, it is expected to be fairly faint, so night-sky Earth observers would need at least a small telescope to view it." The gravitational influence of the asteroid is so small it will have no detectable effect on the moon or anything here on Earth, including our planet's tides or tectonic plates. The Center for NEO Studies at JPL is a central node for NEO data analysis in NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observation Program and a key group involved with the international collaboration of astronomers and scientists who keep watch on the sky with their telescopes, looking for asteroids that could be a hazard to impact our planet and predicting their paths through space for the foreseeable future. "The close approach of 2015 TB145 at about 1.3 times the distance of the moon’s orbit, coupled with its size, suggests it will be one of the best asteroids for radar imaging we’ll see for several years," said Lance Benner, of JPL, who leads NASA's asteroid radar research program. "We plan to test a new capability to obtain radar images with two-meter resolution for the first time and hope to see unprecedented levels of detail." During tracking, scientists will use the 34-meter (110-foot) DSS 13 antenna at Goldstone to bounce radio waves off the asteroid. Radar echoes will in turn be collected by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico. NASA scientists hope to obtain radar images of the asteroid as fine as about 7 feet (2 meters) per pixel. This should reveal a wealth of detail about the object's surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical properties. “The asteroid's orbit is very oblong with a high inclination to below the plane of the solar system," said Benner. "Such a unique orbit, along with its high encounter velocity -- about 35 kilometers or 22 miles per second -- raises the question of whether it may be some type of comet. If so, then this would be the first time that the Goldstone radar has imaged a comet from such a close distance." NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing within 30 million miles of Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The NEOO Program, sometimes called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes the physical nature of a subset of them, and predicts their paths to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. There are no known credible impact threats to date -- only the ongoing and harmless in-fall of meteoroids, tiny asteroids that burn up in the atmosphere. JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: neo.jpl.nasa.govand www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatchDC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 agle@jpl.nasa.gov 2015-323 www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-spots-the-great-pumpkin-halloween-asteroid-a-treat-for-radar-astronomers
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Post by auntym on Oct 23, 2015 13:17:45 GMT -6
news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151023-astronomy-asteroid-encounter-Earth-stargazing-nasa/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20151023news-asteroid&utm_campaign=Content&sf14457760=1 Asteroid Named ‘Spooky’ Will Buzz Earth on HalloweenThe space rock was discovered just weeks before its flyby.By Andrew Fazekas, for National Geographic PUBLISHED October 23, 2015 A space rock bigger than a skyscraper will sail past Earth on Halloween, zipping by just beyond the moon. The asteroid won't collide with our planet, but as a cosmic trick-or-treat it offers a rare chance to see a near miss. Astronomers from NASA's Near Earth Object Program first spotted the incoming asteroid on October 10, just three weeks before its closest approach. It was too small and faint to detect until it came within the range of large survey telescopes. Since then, scientists having been scrambling every night to keep an eye on the interloper, tracking its orbit as well as its shape and size. Nicknamed Spooky, the asteroid (officially called 2015 TB145) is estimated to be about 950 to 2,100 feet wide (290 to 650 meters). Scientists won't be sure of its exact size until they can do radar measurements—and the most accurate will be on Halloween, when it passes the closest. But even at the middle of that range, or 1,300 feet, Spooky will be about 32 times larger than the asteroid that burned up in spectacular fashion above Chelyabinsk, Siberia, in 2013. CONTINUE READING: news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151023-astronomy-asteroid-encounter-Earth-stargazing-nasa/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20151023news-asteroid&utm_campaign=Content&sf14457760=1
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Post by auntym on Nov 2, 2015 14:25:11 GMT -6
www.space.com/30980-halloween-asteroid-flyby-a-science-treat.html?cmpid=514648 Skull-Shaped Halloween Asteroid Zips by Earth, a Treat for Scientistsby Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer November 01, 2015 This radar image of asteroid 2015 TB145, which NASA says is likely a dead comet, was captured using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on Oct. 30, 2015 with a resolution of 25 feet per pixel. The skull shaped asteroid flew by Earth on Halloween (Oct. 31). Credit: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF On Halloween night, while ghouls and goblins did their trick-or-treating, an asteroid that is most likely a dead comet made a close flyby of Earth, with radar images revealing its eerie skull shape. On Saturday (Oct. 31), the asteroid 2015 TB145 passed by Earth at a range of just over 300,000 miles (480,000 kilometers), placing it just outside the orbit of the moon, where it posed no threat to the planet. The timing of the flyby earned the asteroid - which is about 2,000 feet (600 meters) across - the nickname "Spooky" and "Great Pumpkin." Unfortunately for skywatching hobbyists, 2015 TB145 was extremely difficult to see from the ground, but the online Slooh Community Observatory hosted a webcast Saturday afternoon that featured updates on the asteroid's path, and discussions about the dangers of near-Earth asteroids. [Related: Boo! Halloween Asteroid Looks Just Like a Skull] NASA observed the asteroid with radar in infrared using its NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. "The IRTF data may indicate that the object might be a dead comet, but in the Arecibo images it appears to have donned a skull costume for its Halloween flyby," Kelly Fast, IRTF program scientist and acting program manager for NASA's NEO Observations Program, said in a NASA statement Friday (Oct. 30). Slooh used a remotely operated observatory in the Canary Islands to record animations of asteroid 2015 TB145 passing by. The "dead comet" asteroid looks like a bright object speeding across a starry background in those views. It was Slooh who nicknamed the asteroid "Spooky," and the online observatory was thrilled to see the space rock's skull shape in radar views. "We all saw those dramatic images of the skull-like object whirling through space captured by NASA's Arecibo Observatory," Slooh's Tricia Ennis wrote in an email update. "We got a kick out of how appropriate our 'Spooky' moniker ended up being, here at Slooh." The flyby was a treat for scientists, because it allowed them to see the space rock up close, with a radar resolution of as little as 6.6 feet (2 meters) on the surface. On Saturday, scientists fired radio waves at the passing space rock using a 110-foot-wide (34 m) antenna at NASA's Deep Space Network facility in Goldstone, California. The radio waves that bounced off the asteroid and came back to Earth were then collected using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory. WATCH VIDEO,MORE PHOTOS & CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/30980-halloween-asteroid-flyby-a-science-treat.html?cmpid=514648
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ASTEROIDS
Feb 18, 2016 18:32:18 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2016 18:32:18 GMT -6
Coming to a sky near you.... 2013TX68 March 5th.... 0.044 ld (lunar distance) near earth object...most likely wont hit earth. About 30 meters diameter.
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Post by auntym on Mar 5, 2016 13:03:33 GMT -6
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3477300/Look-100ft-asteroid-203-TX68-pass-just-15-000-miles-Earth-Sunday-Nasa-claims-safe.html Look out! 100ft asteroid 203 TX68 could pass just 15,000 miles from Earth on Sunday - but Nasa claims we are safe *Nasa says the asteroid, dubbed 2013 TX68, poses no threat to Earth *Latest prediction shows it will fly by 3m miles (5m km) from our planet *Small chance it could pass 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) above Earth *Other limit of predicted range it could remain 3 million miles away *One in 250 million chance it will hit Earth on September 28, 2017 By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com / www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Mark+Prigg+For+Dailymail.comPublished: 4 March 2016 A 100ft-wide asteroid is heading for a close encounter with Earth on Sunday and could come closer than some orbiting satellites. But scientists are sure it will miss the Earth by at least 15,000 miles, and say there is no need to panic. The space rock, named 2013 TX68, was spotted three years ago by astronomers in the US scouring the skies for potentially threatening near-Earth objects (NEOs). 'We already knew this asteroid, 2013 TX68, would safely fly past Earth in early March, but this additional data allow us to get a better handle on its orbital path,' said Paul Chodas, manager of CNEOS. 'There is no concern whatsoever regarding this asteroid – unless you were interested in seeing it with a telescope,' said Chodas. 'Prospects for observing this asteroid, which were not very good to begin with, are now even worse because the asteroid is likely to be farther away, and therefore dimmer than previously believed.' The data indicate that this small asteroid will probably pass much farther away from Earth than previously thought.' Because it was tracked for only 10 days, its orbital path is uncertain. Experts believe it will make its closest approach to Earth on Sunday, although the forecast might be one or two days out. CONTINUE READING: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3477300/Look-100ft-asteroid-203-TX68-pass-just-15-000-miles-Earth-Sunday-Nasa-claims-safe.html
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Post by auntym on Apr 18, 2016 12:49:52 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/128347/nasa-discovers-72-new-never-seen-neos/ NASA Discovers 72 New Asteroids Near Earth13 Apr , 2016 by Matt Williams / www.universetoday.com/author/mwill/Artist's impression of a Near-Earth Asteroid passing by Earth. Credit: ESA Of the more than 600,000 known asteroids in our Solar System, almost 10 000 are known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). These are asteroids or comets whose orbits bring them close to Earth’s, and which could potentially collide with us at some point in the future. As such, monitoring these objects is a vital part of NASA’s ongoing efforts in space. One such mission is NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), which has been active since December 2013. And now, after two years of study, the information gathered by the mission is being released to the public. This included, most recently, NEOWISE’s second year of survey data, which accounted for 72 previously unknown objects that orbit near to our planet. Of these, eight were classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), based on their size and how closely their orbits approach Earth. Originally launched back in 2009 as the Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE), the spacecraft relied on its infrared telescope to look for previously undetected star clusters and main belt asteroids. In February of 2011, the mission ended and the spacecraft was put into hibernation. As of December 2013, it was reactivated for the purpose of surveying Near-Earth Objects (i.e. comets and asteroids) for the remainder of its service life. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has been scanning the entire sky in infrared light, searching for objects that could threaten Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL This mission not only involves scanning for NEOs at infrared wavelengths, but also characterizing previously known asteroids and comets to provide information about their sizes and compositions. James Bauer, the mission’s deputy principal investigator, explained NEOWISE’s operations to Universe Today via email: “NEOWISE detects asteroids and comets, both near to Earth and further away, in the asteroid Main Belt for example, using infrared light. Because we look in the thermal infrared, the part of the spectrum where these small solar-system bodies are re-emitting the light they absorbed at other wavelengths, we can detect some of the darkest ones more easily than ground-based observatories, which look at their reflected light from the Sun. We can also get a better idea of the sizes, based on how much infrared light they re-emit. This way we detect and characterize Near Earth Objects that we may want to visit in the near future, and find new ones that may present impact risks as well as opportunities for exploration. NEOWISE has detected over 500 NEOs to date, including more than 81 discovered.” Paired with ground-based telescopes that examine space in visible-light wavelengths, the data it has provided has told us much in the past two years about asteroids within our Solar System. Since beginning its “second life”, the NEOWISE mission has taken millions of images of the sky and measured more than 19,000 asteroids and comets. CONTINUE READING: www.universetoday.com/128347/nasa-discovers-72-new-never-seen-neos/
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ASTEROIDS
Apr 18, 2016 15:08:54 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 15:08:54 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2016 9:36:06 GMT -6
yay moon
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Post by auntym on Apr 19, 2016 13:04:38 GMT -6
www.nasa.gov/feature/asteroid-grand-challenge-releases-find-them-now-videoMarch 30, 2016
Asteroid Grand Challenge Releases "Find Them Now" VideoWith support from the NASA Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI), the NASA Asteroid Grand Challenge (AGC) ran a challenge on Tongal.com to develop a short video describing the work being done to detect, track, characterize, and mitigate potentially hazardous asteroids. The video challenge was opened to public submissions on October 19, 2015. The NASA team received over 600 ideas of 140 characters or less which were narrowed down to four possible pitch concepts. Cascadium Pictures of Brooklyn, New York submitted the winning pitch for the opportunity to produce this AGC video. The NASA Asteroid Grand Challenge worked with Cascadium to create a narrative around a fictional asteroid named “Arthur”. JL Galache of the Minor Planet Center narrates how the asteroid would be detected by the NEOWISE project and other tools used by the NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Arthur’s spin, size, composition and mass would be determined using radar, astrometry, ground and space-based infrared spectroscopy, and light curve analysis. We believe working together we can protect our planet from potentially harmful asteroids. We thank CoECI, Tongal, Cascadium Pictures, and those who submitted ideas for their contributions to this project. This video, and other efforts like it, are part of a large scale endeavor to use multi-disciplinary collaborations to solve the Asteroid Grand Challenge. “As we look out from our small outpost into this vast galaxy, scanning the night sky for threats to our home planet, our continued survival depends on the three rules of asteroid planetary protection: Find them early. Find them soon. Find them now." Last Updated: March 30, 2016 Editor: Dennis Bonilla www.nasa.gov/feature/asteroid-grand-challenge-releases-find-them-now-video
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 10:09:56 GMT -6
Too close !
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2016 10:57:12 GMT -6
Even closer ! This one is within 21,000 miles. It's flying by today.....It's within the orbital zone of geosynchronous satellites. spaceweather.com/
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ASTEROIDS
Mar 31, 2017 17:39:16 GMT -6
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Post by jcurio on Mar 31, 2017 17:39:16 GMT -6
Not just that, but B-whatever (already forgot its number/sorry!) seems to be regularly going through "those other fields". ? 😳
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Post by swamprat on Jun 16, 2017 11:07:36 GMT -6
Are asteroids hiding among the Taurids?By Eddie Irizarry in Astronomy Essentials | Space June 15, 2017
And, more to the point, are any asteroids that might be hidden in the Taurid meteor stream potentially hazardous to Earth?
A team of European astronomers has identified a new swarm of meteoroids – icy debris in space, left behind by a comet – related to the Taurid meteor shower. More importantly, this new meteoroid stream might also contain still-undiscovered asteroids, some good-sized, say, a few tens of meters (yards) or even larger. Let’s be clear. We are no more in danger of being hit by a space rock from the newly discovered stream of Taurids than we were before scientists discovered it. So there is no imminent danger here. It simply means that scientists will be searching the newly identified streams of meteoroids, with the goal of detecting any medium-sized or even moderately large asteroids with orbits that might bring them near Earth.
What are meteoroids? They are typically bits of debris in space, often left behind by comets as they orbit the sun. The Taurid meteor shower, for example, is produced by debris of Comet 2P/Encke. When debris from a comet enters our atmosphere, meteoroids vaporize due to friction with the air, leaving streaks of light in our night sky that we call meteors. Sometimes, a random meteor (usually not associated with one of the annual meteor showers) hits the ground, and then its name changes again to meteorite.
There are many comets orbiting the sun, leaving debris behind. As Earth orbits the sun, as our planet encounters these small particles left by comets, we see meteor showers. Some meteoroid streams produce only a few visible meteors, but sometimes Earth passes by a denser swarm of particles, thus causing a more impressive or active meteor shower.
These particles are usually very small, maybe as tiny as sand, or grains of rice, although the sizes do vary. New research suggests some recent Taurid fireballs – or exceptionally bright meteors – were produced by much-larger particles. At least meteor observed in 2015 had an estimated size of about a meter (3.28 feet). Another, very bright meteor – observed in 2015 and recently studied – might have been caused by a space rock 10 times more massive.
The Taurid meteor shower occurs every year, beginning in late October and extending through November. It usually offers only a few bright meteors. However, 2015 was an exceptional year for the Taurids. In November, 2015, a network of meteor cameras located in Europe detected about 200 fireballs. Of those, 24 were very bright, and 10 were as bright or even brighter than the full moon.
Since then, astronomers have made an extensive analysis of some of the incoming 2015 Taurids and found that most of the meteors showed a trajectory or orbit that points to the same new branch of meteoroid material. And hence a new meteoroid stream has been found.
Then something else got astronomers’ attention. They realized that some large space rocks, including asteroids 2015 TX24 and 2005 UR, share the same orbits as the newly found swarm of Taurid meteoroids. These asteroids are now assumed to be members of the newly detected meteoroid stream. Asteroid 2015 TX24 – discovered on October 8, 2015 – was closest to Earth 20 days later, on October 28, a date very close to the Taurid meteor shower’s enhanced activity in 2015.
These asteroids are between 200 and 300 meters (656 and 984 feet) in diameter.
And so it appears likely that the newly discovered meteoroid streams contains other still-undiscovered, but relatively large, space rocks.
Remember, some Taurid meteors encounter Earth’s atmosphere each year. Is it possible that larger objects in the newly found Taurid meteor stream might also encounter Earth? For this reason, astronomers speak of these objects as potentially hazardous. They say the objects would be large enough to cause some regional damage if they were indeed to strike Earth, but – as yet – no asteroid has been identified as threatening or having a collision course with Earth.
Clearly, further research and observations are needed.
earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/taurid-new-meteroid-stream-potentially-hazardous-asteroids?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=82880ab018-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-82880ab018-394368745&mc_cid=82880ab018&mc_eid=9b2daed519
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Post by swamprat on Aug 1, 2017 9:50:19 GMT -6
A Close Asteroid Flyby of Earth in October Will Give Scientists Tracking PracticeBy Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer August 1, 2017
Scientists around the world will be watching especially keenly when a house-size asteroid zooms safely past Earth this October.
The asteroid 2012 TC4, which is thought to be between 33 feet and 100 feet (10 to 30 meters) wide, will give Earth a close shave on Oct. 12, potentially coming as close to our planet as 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers), NASA officials said.
There's no danger of an impact by the space rock on THIS pass. But astronomers will be following the flyby closely, as a way of testing the international asteroid detection and tracking network.
"This is the perfect target for such an exercise, because, while we know the orbit of 2012 TC4 well enough to be absolutely certain it will not impact Earth, we haven't established its exact path just yet," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in the same statement.
Read more: www.space.com/37676-asteroid-2012-tc4-earth-flyby-tracking-practice.html
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Post by auntym on Nov 29, 2017 13:46:33 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/11/huge-christmas-asteroid-close-enough-to-affect-santas-ride/ Huge Christmas Asteroid – Close Enough to Affect Santa’s Ride?by Paul Seaburn mysteriousuniverse.org/author/paulseaburn/ November 30, 2017 A three-mile-wide (4.8 km) asteroid is about to make one of its closest approaches ever and become the third-largest NASA-designated “potentially hazardous” object in history to approach the Earth. Not only that, it’s arriving right in the middle of the Christmas season. Will it become a Christmas star, a celestial Grinch that stole Christmas or a hazard that even Rudolph’s nose can’t protect Santa Claus from? The history of 3200 Phaethon is interesting and potentially disconcerting. Although it’s been around (and around the Sun) for ages, it was only discovered in 1983 by astronomers Simon F. Green and John K. Davies and visually confirmed by Charles T. Kowal, who determined it to be asteroidal, at least in appearance. Further analysis showed how special this space rock is. 1983 TB (its original name) has an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun than any other named asteroid. That prompted astronomers to name it Phaethon in honor of the son of the Greek sun god Helios. That Phaethon borrowed his father’s sun chariot and drove it without the proper license or training, resulting in him getting too close to burning up Earth and resulting in Zeus tossing a thunderbolt that stopped the chariot and killed Phaethon. Speaking of getting too close to the Earth, the real 3200 Phaethon does that too. Reverse calculations prior to its actual discovery show that it was only 5 million miles away when it passed on December 16, 1974. This year, it will be 6.4 million miles away, or 27 times the average distance between Earth and the moon. If you’re still around then, it will be 1.8 million miles away in 2093. That may sound like a long way off, but it’s close enough for the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center to deem it a potentially hazardous near Earth object, which means its impact could cause serious regional damage and it has the potential and proximity for impact. In fact, 3200 Phaethon is already affecting the Earth in another way. Astronomer Fred Whipple determined that the asteroid’s unusual orbit matches that of meteors that make up the annual mid-December Geminids meteor shower, making Phaethon their proud papa. Yeah, yeah, yeah … that’s all very interesting but what about Christmas? Since 3200 Phaethon isn’t visible to the naked eye (although it can be seen this year with low-powered telescopes between December 11 and 21), it’s not the Christmas star. And it doesn’t appear that this is its year for a big impact – and a three-mile-wide asteroid would make a BIG impact. Some estimates suggest a mile-wide asteroid hitting New York City would destroy it and everything else from Washington DC to Boston, not to mention creating a dust cloud capable of blocking the Sun and ending most life on Earth. Luckily, it doesn’t look like even the entire collection of naughtiness on Earth is enough to deliver that lump of coal in our stockings this year. We’re safe and so is Santa. mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/11/huge-christmas-asteroid-close-enough-to-affect-santas-ride/
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Post by auntym on Dec 21, 2017 13:46:13 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Sept 25, 2018 14:03:08 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/09/japan-lands-two-rovers-on-potentially-hazardous-asteroid-ryugu/ Japan Lands Two Rovers on Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Ryuguby Brett Tingley / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/bbtingley/September 26, 2018 ‘Member in that movie Armageddon when Bruce Willis landed a spaceship on a freakin’ asteroid? I remember. While that might have seemed like an outlandish and unrealistic plot device at the time, it turns out that such an escapade may indeed be possible – if Bruce Willis is available, of course. That guy stays pretty busy. Die Hard 6, really? Actually, even without Bruce Willis’ help, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced this week that they have successfully landed rovers on the asteroid Ryugu. 162173 Ryugu is a potentially hazardous near-Earth object (NEO) measuring around 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter. Ryugu orbits the sun every 16 months and passes within a quarter of a lunar distance to Earth as it does, making it an object worthy of our attention. The groundbreaking mission is part of the agency’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample-return mission, the ultimate goal of which is to collect material samples of Ryugu and safely bring them back to Earth for analysis. At least when we’re all incinerated by an asteroid impact, we will have known what it was made of. To accomplish this feat, JAXA has deployed two tiny rovers called MINERVA II which are able to hop and roll around the asteroid’s surface, taking photographs and collecting samples all the way. The rovers have already beamed back a few pictures, and they’re as incredible as you would imagine they are. The images show asteroid 162173 Ryugu to be just the type of barren, inhospitable rock an asteroid should be. 162173 Ryugu Will we one day have to send Bruce Willis or another similarly steely-eyed hunk on a suicidal mission to land on an asteroid and blow it to bits? Given how much attention the White House is paying to asteroids and the other 15,000 near-Earth objects lately, it’s definitely possible – especially given that some scientists accuse NASA of hiding the truth about these NEOs. This is why it’s important to live for today. Asteroids have impacted the Earth many times throughout our planet’s history, causing mass extinction events and generally ruining everyone’s day. All of this has happened before and will happen again. When will the next one occur? mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/09/japan-lands-two-rovers-on-potentially-hazardous-asteroid-ryugu/
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Post by auntym on Sept 30, 2018 12:03:37 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/09/the-skull-asteroid-comes-back-for-another-scary-halloween-pass/ The Skull Asteroid Comes Back For Another Scary Halloween Passby Paul Seaburn / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/paulseaburn/September 29, 2018 Take one space object with a reflectivity number just slightly higher than charcoal. Notice that it arrived close enough to wake up the rarely-alert asteroid warning system workers on October 31st, the date of a popular worldwide holiday. Stare at pictures of its dark surface long enough to conjure up an image that relates to the holiday. Throw in comments from astronomers that it’s “dead.” Stir it all together in a witch’s kettle and you have the Halloween Death Comet, a skull-ish Near Earth Object discovered days before Halloween in 2015 and returning just days after Halloween this year. Should we eat all of our candy quickly before the Death Comet destroys us the planet? Do you really need a wild excuse like that to eat all of the candy quickly? Asteroid 2015 TB145’s distance from Earth in 2015 Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 2015 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS-1 (Paannamic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System). Before its eerie pareidolic skull image was visible, 2015 TB145 was considered to be dangerous NEO because of its size (between 2,050 feet and 2,297 feet or .6 km to .7 km) and its projected close pass to the Earth — 300,000 miles (480.000) or just slightly beyond the orbit of the moon at 1.3 lunar distances. We’re still here, so The Great Pumpkin (NASA’s Halloweenish nickname before its scarier face was seen) didn’t get close enough for a hit. What about this time? “Although this approach shall not be so favourable, we will be able to obtain new data which could help improve our knowledge of this mass and other similar masses that come close to our planet.” That’s astronomer-speak for “close enough to justify our funding but not enough to cause a panic.” Pablo Santos-Sanz from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and other astronomers think the more interesting aspect of the asteroid is the fact that it’s NOT an asteroid. Vishnu Reddy, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, explains why. “We found that the object reflects about six percent of the light it receives from the sun. That is similar to fresh asphalt, and while here on Earth we think that is pretty dark, it is brighter than a typical comet which reflects only 3 to 5 percent of the light. That suggests it could be cometary in origin — but as there is no coma evident, the conclusion is it is a dead comet.” Comet with coma “Coma” is that blurry aura seen around comets as they make their tight turn around the Sun. No coma means no more ice – the definition of a dead comet killed by the Sun – but better conditions for imagining the dead comet looks like a revolving skull glaring with its dead eyes at us Earthlings as it passes. (See how easy pareidolia is?) 2015 TB145 or the Death Skull Halloween Comet Asteroid Great Pumpkin will be closest to Earth on November 11th. It’s a safe bet that you will have no more candy to gorge on by then. mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/09/the-skull-asteroid-comes-back-for-another-scary-halloween-pass/
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Post by auntym on Jan 15, 2019 15:25:33 GMT -6
www.astronomy.com/news/2019/01/asteroid-eros-makes-its-closest-approach-until-2056-tonight Tonight, asteroid Eros will make its closest approach to Earth until 2056By Richard Talcott / www.astronomy.com/authors/richard-talcott Tuesday, January 15, 2019 This mosaic image of Asteroid 433 Eros was created using six images taken February 29, 2000, by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft from an altitude of about 125 miles (200 kilometers). NASA/JPL/JHUAPL Near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros makes its closest approach to Earth since 2012 today, when it comes within 19.4 million miles (31.2 million kilometers) of our planet. Throughout the week, asteroid Eros glows at 9th magnitude, making it bright enough to glimpse through small telescopes. The elongated asteroid has an average diameter of just over 10.5 miles (17 km), making it about 1/50th the diameter of dwarf Planet Ceres, which is the largest body in the asteroid belt. Asteroid 433 Eros resides about 10° southwest of brilliant Capella this evening, a region that lies high in the east after darkness falls. If you can't make it out tonight (or clouds thwart your plans), be sure to catch Eros sometime this month — it won’t be as close or as bright again until 2056. For more quick and easy observing tips, make sure to check out The sky this week for January 11 to 20: www.astronomy.com/observing/sky-this-week/2019/01/the-sky-this-week-from-january-11-to-january-20www.astronomy.com/news/2019/01/asteroid-eros-makes-its-closest-approach-until-2056-tonight
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