Near Miss

Reamer Fanny

Talk about a close shave!
A craggy, 1,300-foot wide bit of space rock will miss Earth tonight, astronomers are certain. But countless asteroids, gravity wells and other celestial bodies that shaped its course through the cold reaches of space could have turned this near miss into a disaster, said Ron Dantowitz, director of the Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Mass.
"Everything shapes its course," Datowitz told FoxNews.com, even the Earth and moon that asteroid 2005 YU55 will breeze past at 6:28 p.m. EST Tuesday, Nov. 8. At that point, the space rock will be traveling at about 29,000 mph ... a whopping 8 miles per second.
The asteroid has travelled light years to reach us, on a trajectory affected by planets, asteroids, space dust and more. Tonight it will be a mere 201,700 miles from Earth -- closer than the moon at one point.
What if the tug of gravity from a planet in a galaxy far, far away had been slightly stronger? What if the course of asteroid 2005 YU55 had been altered by a tiny amount, a few micrometers -- micrometers that added up over the course of millions of light years?
Indeed, even the effect of light is enough to alter the path of an asteroid.
"The … reflection and ... re-emission of sunlight from an asteroid's surface acts as a propulsion engine," wrote Finnish researcher Mikko Kaasalainen of the University of Helsinki in a 2007 article in Nature magazine.
The force he described is called the 'Yarkovsky-O'Keefe- Radzievskii-Paddack effect' or YORP for short. As an asteroid turns, sunlight slightly warms each side, which causes it to spin away and lose this heat to the chill of space. And that tiny spin adds up, over the course of trillions of miles.
“It’s a small effect on human time scales,” Jean-Luc Margot, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University told the New York Times at the time. “It’s an enormous effect on geological time scales.”
Solar energy aside, NASA relies on a physical model of the solar system that takes into account the gravitational influence of the sun, moon, and other planets, as well as the three largest asteroids to predict the path of racing asteroids.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 travels an elliptical path, of course, meaning it passes the Earth, Venus and Mars regularly -- zooming over our oblivious heads many times already, he said.
"The scary thing: This thing has been past the Earth several times and we never even noticed it," Datowitz warned.
He pointed out that an asteroid impact is ultimately inevitable. It's happened before, and it will happen again.
"It's literally a matter of time," Datowitz told FoxNews.com. "The bad news, the last one hit about 60 million years ago, give or take." There's another one coming, in other words, and we're almost overdue for it.
"It's a reminder that we need to pay attention to the things out in space," he said.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/08/asteroid-close-call-with-earth-have-no-idea/


Very surprised to see this not being debated in AH, I nearly cacked my pants when I heard how close the Asteroid came to the earth.

Cill Dara Abu

Phew!

Completionist

a mere 201,700 miles from earth... :pac:

Saila

could have would have, it didnt.

El Weirdo

What would we be debating exactly?

arybvtcw0eolkf

Myself and Chuck were on standby, he was going to stun it with a punch and I was going to roundhouse kick it out of the far side of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Stand down people.

amacachi

Let's go burn down the observatory so this will never happen again!

Completionist

El Weirdo wrote: »

What would we be debating exactly?

What we want to put on the space rock, I was thinking beach resort?

Wertz

Meh there was more chnace of a 747 crashing into your house than this hitting us...

Reamer Fanny

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

Phew!

Apparently NASA just released some new pictures of this beast

Saila

Wertz wrote: »

Meh there was more chnace of a 747 crashing into your house than this hitting us...

but still a chance! :eek:







:rolleyes:

shannon_tek

Fast news travels slow. round these parts. Old news


NEHXT!!:pac:

Chuck Stone

I'd like to throw a stone at it.

Saila

El Weirdo wrote: »

What would we be debating exactly?

how to eat cream eggs obviously

Local-womanizer

If it was going to hit us I would go to the epicentre and try and catch it on the volley.

flutterflye

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I'd like to throw a stone at it.

No, no.. you should chuck one at it instead.

maglite

justryan wrote: »

Source: http://www.foxnews

nuf said

Alibaba

Watch Out ! Behind your back....

Oranage2

Nasa are really gettin desperate in their lies for funding campaign - first the moon landing now this - to be honest im starting to think whether 'space' actually exists!

Saila

Oranage2 wrote: »

Nasa are really gettin desperate in their lies for funding campaign - first the moon landing now this - to be honest im starting to think whether 'space' actually exists!

what does space exist in and whats on the otherside of it :pac:

Son Of A Vidic

In celestial terms that's virtually the width of a hair, I only heard about it 45 minutes ago. Estimated to be 400 Meters wide, or to put that in context. The meteorite which created the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona was an estimated 50 metres wide. The Barringer crater is 1200 meters in diameter and 170 meters deep. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was 8 times bigger, so it could have had some very serious consequences if it had hit us.

Reamer Fanny

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

In celestial terms that's virtually the width of a hair, I only heard about it 45 minutes ago. Estimated to be 400 Meters wide, or to put that in context. The meteorite which created the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona was an estimated 50 metres wide. The Barringer crater is 1200 meters in diameter and 170 meters deep. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was 8 times bigger, so it could have had some very serious consequences if it had hit us.

My thoughts exactly if we thought a bit of rain was bad imagine what would have happended had it hit us.

Alibaba

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

In celestial terms that's virtually the width of a hair, I only heard about it 45 minutes ago. Estimated to be 400 Meters wide, or to put that in context. The meteorite which created the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona was an estimated 50 metres wide. The Barringer crater is 1200 meters in diameter and 170 meters deep. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was 8 times bigger, so it could have had some very serious consequences if it had hit us.

And all at once the financial crisis was over.. and the Planet Earth was wiped out..

Cathaoirleach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuCN6CD8j_s

Helix

this was getting plenty of coverage for the last while... im surprised people didnt know about it

Reamer Fanny

Helix wrote: »

this was getting plenty of coverage for the last while... im surprised people didnt know about it

I know riiight people need to look at the bigger picture

Wertz

justryan wrote: »

I know riiight people need to look at the bigger picture

...or simply any rolling news channel.

The King of Moo

This was just mentioned on the news, and I instinctively looked up to see it.

I'm not even outside.

Pherekydes

This is like standing at the side of the M50 and saying "Oh my God, that artic just missed me. I could've been killed."

galwayrush

So, nothing happened.

Dravokivich

justryan wrote: »

Very surprised to see this not being debated in AH, I nearly cacked my pants when I heard how close the Asteroid came to the earth.

Overdue an impact?

What kind of bullshít is that?

Also... I would have expected the trajectory of the Asteroid to be affected by the gravitational pull of anything it went by. If one was to be strong enough to bring it in for an impact to us, would that be some sort of "War done been declared?"

Don't really get what's to be debated...

marcsignal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIwX0Qeid9o

Plazaman

I was very disappointed that NASA didn't call me and my team this time around to take care of this after our last successful mission to land on a meteor and, with our deep core drilling skills that we have acquired from searching for oil, sink a nuclear bomb into it, detonate it and split the rock to deflect it from Earth. On the down side we lost a few good men up there but on the plus side I was able to fong the gowl off Steven Tylers daughter.

Tim the Enchanter

This asteroid had no chance of hitting us.

This one on the other hand!!!!

Andrew33

Tim the Enchanter wrote: »

This asteroid had no chance of hitting us.

This one one the other hand!!!!

EEK!:eek:

On the bright side....all you people out there with 40yr mortgages? stop worrying about it:)

Reamer Fanny

marcsignal wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIwX0Qeid9o

So which side is the rage face on?

Reamer Fanny

Tim the Enchanter wrote: »

This asteroid had no chance of hitting us.

This one on the other hand!!!!

Ah sure that's years away, plenty of time to assemble a crack team and blow it into a million tiny mini-asteroids :eek:

Miss Olenska

In before reference to George Carlin...

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuCN6CD8j_s

EDIT: Dammit!

But seriously... EVERY GODDAMN TIME. Yawn.

jonnyfingers

justryan wrote: »

Ah sure that's years away, plenty of time to assemble a crack team and blow it into a million tiny mini-asteroids :eek:

I hear Michael Bay is already writing the script.

Ellis Dee

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

In celestial terms that's virtually the width of a hair, I only heard about it 45 minutes ago. Estimated to be 400 Meters wide, or to put that in context. The meteorite which created the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona was an estimated 50 metres wide. The Barringer crater is 1200 meters in diameter and 170 meters deep. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was 8 times bigger, so it could have had some very serious consequences if it had hit us.

Very true. Scientists now believe that the Tunguska object, which flattened about 2,000 sq. kilometres (about the size of Westmeath)of taiga forest in Siberia in 1908 may have been as small as 30 metres in diameter. If it had arrived seven hours after it did, it would have hit London. :eek::eek::eek:

Galtee

We're just lucky we live on the same planet as Bruce Willis.

Lando Griffin

God will not let this happen if we keep God happy.
Thats why we are long overdue one now, because God has been happy enough with things here.
But things are changing what with the sexulatisiation of children from the music and fashion industries to corporate greed.

Killer Pigeon

"Same thing happened in Tullamore last week."

admiralofthefleet

the width of a spiders gee hair in galactic terms