Just as you thought it was safe to go out after 2012

Spook_ie

So plenty time to get some yoga practice in, so you can put yer head between yer legs and kiss yer ass goodbye

http://news.sky.com/story/1035995/doomsday-asteroid-that-could-crash-into-earth

Astronomers following the so-called "doomsday" asteroid Apophis which could collide with Earth have discovered it is 20% bigger than previously thought.

Previous estimates put the asteroid's average diameter at 270 metres (877 feet) representing a mass that would equal the energy release of a 506-megatonne bomb, according to Nasa figures.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said its Herschel telescope had scanned the space rock as it headed towards its closest fly-by with the planet in years on Wednesday.

In a two-hour observation, Herschel returned a diameter of 325 metres (1,056 feet), with a range of 15 metres (48.75 feet) either way, the ESA said.

"The 20% increase in diameter, from 270m to 325m translates into a 75% increase in our estimates of the asteroid's volume or mass," said Thomas Mueller, of the Max Planck Institute for Extra-terrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, who led the data analysis.

Named after the god of evil, darkness and destruction in Egyptian mythology, Apophis sparked a scare when it was first detected in 2004.

Early calculations suggested a 2.7% chance of the space rock hitting Earth in 2029 - the highest ever for an asteroid, but the risk was swiftly downgraded after further observations.

It is expected to pass even closer to the planet on April 13, 2036, according to Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

The object is being tracked by astronomers to help them fine tune the 2029 and 2036 risks of a collision.

Herschel, using thermal sensors, also found that Apophis is darker than previously thought, the ESA added.

Only 23% of light that falls on it is reflected, and the rest is absorbed by the asteroid. Previous estimates of this reflectivity, known as albedo, were put at around 33%.

This discovery is important because asteroids experience something called the Yarkovsky effect, or an increase in thrust that comes from alternate heating and cooling as the rock slowly turns in space.

Over time, this momentum can change the body's trajectory as it moves through the Solar System.

On February 15, a 57-metre (185-feet) asteroid, 2012 DA14, will skim the planet at just 34,500km (21,600 miles), making the narrowest approach so far of any detected asteroid.

frozenfrozen

I told ye we shouldn't have had 13 on the car regs at all.. but no ye didn't listen...

TeddyTedson

It will burn up in the atmosphere

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Someone call Bruce Willis

Hippies!

I find it very hard to believe a 300 metre lump of rock could end the world. Nearly as bad as the global warming fear mongers so it is.

Where To

Hippies! wrote: »

I find it very hard to believe a 300 metre lump of rock could end the world. Nearly as bad as the global warming fear mongers so it is.

Density + Velocity = Kablammo

mikom

♫ I don't wanna close my eyes.............

Hippies!

Where To wrote: »

Density + Velocity = Kablammo

That means nothing to me I need pictures

Fr_Dougal

TeddyTedson wrote: »

It will burn up in the atmosphere

I dunno, Ted...town's been dead the last couple of weekends...

Spook_ie

Hippies! wrote: »

I find it very hard to believe a 300 metre lump of rock could end the world. Nearly as bad as the global warming fear mongers so it is.

Well it'll still put a dampener on any plans for the day

Size Yield Crater Effect
(Megatons) (km)
......................................................
75 m 100 1.5 Land impacts destroy area
the size of Washington or Paris)

160 m 500 3.0 Destroys large urban areas

350 m 5000 6.0 Destroys area the size of a
small state. Ocean impacts produce
tsunamis.

700 m 15,000 12 Land impact destroys Virginia,
Tiawan and ocean impact causes
major tsunami.

1.7 km 200,000 30 Land impacts affect climate,
global destruction of ozone,
tsunamis destroy coastal communities.

3.0 km 1 million 60 Large nations destroyed, widespread
fires from ejecta, climate change.

7.0 km 50 million 125 Mass extinction, global conflagration,
long term climate change.

16 km 200 million 250 Large mass extinction.

IM0

why do they call natural disasters like that and hurricanes dennis, margaret, steve and dorothy. names like the cunt, the really bit cunt, the really big horrible cunt would be so much better

Duckworth_Luas

Stealth Recce wrote: »

Someone call Bruce Willis

Too late for that now. May as well just get Morgan Freeman to make a solemn speech that begins with "Citizens of the USA ..." and ends with "... may God help you all!"

Richard Hillman

I wouldnt worry too much about an asteroid that size. It could easily be blown up mid air or in space.

Spook_ie

IM0 wrote: »

why do they call natural disasters like that and hurricanes dennis, margaret, steve and dorothy. names like the cunt, the really bit cunt, the really big horrible cunt would be so much better

Could see why they might name the crater as a cunt but not the meteorite, maybe prick though?

faccid

I better spend all my money ad live recklessly. Whats the point of living a safe life now?

youtube!

Hippies! wrote: »

I find it very hard to believe a 300 metre lump of rock could end the world. Nearly as bad as the global warming fear mongers so it is.

It wouldnt. The asteroid that wiped out the dinos was 6 km at least.

Remember the only way any asteroid would wipe us out is by the debris ejected from the impact crater reached orbit and darkens out the sun,the same thing would happen with a super volcano, i.e the sun gets darkened out by the massive amounts of dust.

Other factors would include the angle trajectory of the object,if it was at only 10 degrees for instance it would not do nearly as much damage as if it hit at 45 degrees or worst of all head on!

A 1k asteroid would possibly wipe out a small country/large city and would cause massive devastation for anywhere within a hundred Kms or more but there is no way it is large enough to wipe out a planet or even a continent.

In case you are interested most people dont realise that we actually had a genuine asteroid impact as recently as 2009 in the Nubian Desert.....the first ever impact that we knew was coming and was correctly predicted to within a small distance, there are even photos of it taken on a mobile phone by a local.




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1164863/Asteroid-collision-course-Earth-tracked-time--way-fiery-grave.html

frozenfrozen

faccid wrote: »

I better spend all my money ad live recklessly. Whats the point of living a safe life now?

You might not make it to your blow up child's first communion if you don't change your ways

longhalloween

youtube! wrote: »

A 1k asteroid would possibly wipe out a small country/large city and would cause massive devastation for anywhere within a hundred Kms or more but there is no way it is large enough to wipe out a planet or even a continent.
]

We're a small country... :(:(

youtube!

longhalloween wrote: »

We're a small country... :(:(

:D

faccid

frozenfrozen wrote: »

You might not make it to your blow up child's first communion if you don't change your ways

I was going use my savings for my future blow up dolls education but whats the point now? It prob end up working in some seedy shop.

Captain Chaos

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I wouldnt worry too much about an asteroid that size. It could easily be blown up mid air or in space.

Nope. And doing that would make it worse. Also it would be very hard to do, require years of planning and we'd need to launch the mission for it now if we wanted it gone by 2029. We can only deflect it with nuclear weapons.

ben.schlomo

Stargazing Live on BBC 2 just had NASA people on saying they confirmed today that it will not impact Earth.

mkdon05

mikom wrote: »

♫ I don't wanna close my eyes.............

Cos I'd miss you baby.......

faccid

mkdon05 wrote: »

Cos I'd miss you baby.......

And I don't wanna miss a thing

donvito99

Sure wasn't I just watching Armageddon yesterday! Feck...

Spook_ie

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Stargazing Live on BBC 2 just had NASA people on saying they confirmed today that it will not impact Earth.

They'd have to say that anyway, imagine the scene if someone from NASA said "Yeah it'll impact"

Thomas20

Because that’s not the way the media wants to take it and spin it and turn it in to fear. Because then you’re watching television, you’re watching the news, you’re being pumped full of fear. There are floods, there’s AIDS, there’s murder, cut to commercial, buy the Acura, buy the Colgate… If you have bad breath they’re not going to talk to you, if you got pimples the girl’s not going to **** you. It’s a campaign of fear and consumption. And that’s what I think it’s all based on, it’s the whole idea that... keep everyone afraid, and they’ll consume and that’s really the symbols people are bound to.
M.Manson

Chuck Stone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBh_k2ieM84

up for anything

mikom wrote: »

♫ I don't wanna close my eyes.............

Please tell me how to 'type' a musical note. I want to make sweet music using them before the world ends.

3ndahalfof6

If this one misses there is one coming behind (actually many of different size) with the name earth ingraved as its target, I have being following it and as we know new things are popping up all the time as we now can see further.

Capt'n Midnight

St Petersburg was missed by the Tunguska yoke by a just a few hours

how big was it ?

starlings

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

St Petersburg was missed by the Tunguska yoke by a just a few hours

how big was it ?

Wiki:"Different studies have yielded widely varying estimates of the object's size, on the order of 100 metres (330 ft)."

I only looked that up for you cause I wanted to know it myself.

youtube!

You see thats the problem with asteroids, we can see the big fellas for years in advance so no need to worry about one wiping us out anytime soon.

We have some of the sky monitored but not nearly enough and for this reason we dont know about those little truck sized but still pretty dangerous type rocks.

Basically the bigger it is the easier it is to see it. I reckon that if a Tunguska sized rock was heading our way we would probably get a bit of notice,exactly how much I dont know.

The one in the Nubian desert was sheer luck that it was picked up in time but even that was only gigving us 20 hrs notice!

I could be wrong but I think less than 20% of the sky is constantly monitored but that figure is increasing all the time,until we have 100% of the sky watched we wont know when a little one will bust through.