Record Setting Asteroid Flyby

[zorgon]

HEY!!! Anyone in Russia out hunting rocks...

...send me a piece will ya?

[astr0144]

Alex Jones comments on the meteor strike..

Ref the Alex Jones thread..

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=1483.msg51485;topicseen#new

[zorgon]

[thorfourwinds]

FOR THE RECORD

Hi Thor Anderson, 

As you probably have heard, today, February 15th, a 150-foot (45 meter) asteroid is whizzing by the Earth a hair's breath from the surface.  Missing us by only 14,000 miles, well within the 22,300 mile orbit of the Geostationary satellites that orbit around the Earth's equator.  

I wanted to put this in perspective for you with some of the chilling and fascinating facts:

   1.   This is approximately the same size as the asteroid that hit the Earth in Russia in Siberia (the "Tunguska Event") on June 30th 1908.
      
   2.   That impact was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs & knocked down 80 million trees down over an area covering 2,150 square kilometers (830 sq mi).
       
   3.   Had it hit near a population center it would have killed millions of people.
       
Today, there are approximately 610,000 asteroids that are actively tracked in our Solar System.  

This number represents less than one percent of the more than 60 million asteroids that orbit the Sun. 
 
To learn more about the threat that these asteroids pose and what Planetary Resources, Inc. and the Asteroid Mining industry can do to help protect the Earth, CLICK HERE.
 
-Chris Lewicki
President & Chief Asteroid Miner
Planetary Resources, Inc.


Question:

The number being sanctified by NASA is 17, 239 miles.

Not to quibble, but does anyone else have information differing from NASA?

All right, Quibble  

[thorfourwinds]

Published on Feb 14, 2013
The video above produced by Cosmographia and the team at Planetary shows how over the past 15 years, we have started to discover asteroids at an astounding rate, going from 33,000 known in 1997, to nearly 610,000 known today.

Today, there are approximately 610,000 asteroids that are actively tracked in our Solar System. This number represents less than one percent of the more than 60 million asteroids that orbit the Sun.

Of these Asteroids, about 1.5 Million are larger than 1 kilometer in size and are what might be described as "Extinction-level / dinosaur killing asteroids."

Today Scientists are closely tracking 434 asteroids which are large enough, and come close enough to the Earth to be of potential future concern, and while none of these pose any significant risk today, increased surveillance is required.

The following video produced by Cosmographia and the team at Planetary shows how over the past 15 years, we have started to discover asteroids at an astounding rate, going from 33,000 known in 1997, to nearly 610,000 known today.


'434 asteroids out of 1.5 million' (admitted to - IMHO not an exact number by any stretch of the imagination) 

The 'larger than 1 kilometer' sure gives a lot of wriggle room, considering the documented damage attributed to smaller ones encountering planet Earth.   

Do you have the latest rage in T-shirts?

[thorfourwinds]

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

Wow.

If you consider all the junk we have flying around up there, it's pretty amazing we don't lose a satellite every few weeks:

[thorfourwinds]

How close was the 'near miss' of 2012 DA14?


From Wiki today:

2012 DA14 is a near-Earth asteroid with an estimated diameter of 50 meters (160 ft) and an estimated mass of 190,000 metric tons.[4]

It was discovered on February 23, 2012, by the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra, Granada in Spain (J75)[1] seven days after passing 0.0174 AU (2,600,000 km; 1,620,000 mi) from Earth.[3]

Calculations show that on February 15, 2013, the distance between the asteroid and the center-point of Earth was 0.0002276 AU (34,050 km; 21,160 mi).[3] The asteroid passed 27,700 km (17,200 mi) from the surface of Earth.[2]

This is a record close approach for a known object of this size.[2]


2013 passage
On January 9, 2013, the asteroid was observed again by Las Campanas Observatory and the observation arc increased from 79 days to 321 days.[7] It now is known that on February 15, 2013 at 19:25 Universal Time, the asteroid passed at a distance of 0.0002276 AU (34,050 km; 21,160 mi) from the center-point of Earth,[3] with an uncertainty region of about 0.0000001 AU (15 km; 9.3 mi).[3]

It passed 27,743 kilometers (17,239 mi) above Earth's surface,[2] closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit.[2] It was not visible to the naked eye,[8] but it briefly peaked at an apparent magnitude of roughly 7.2.[5] The best observation location for the closest approach was Indonesia.[2] Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia also were well situated from which to observe the asteroid during its closest approach.[2]

The asteroid was not expected to pass any closer than 1950 km to any satellites.[9]

Goldstone Observatory will observe 2012 DA14 with radar from February 16 to February 20.[4]

The close approach to Earth reduced the orbital period of 2012 DA14 from 368 days to 317 days,[2][10] and perturbed it from the Apollo class to the Aten class of near-Earth asteroids.[2] Its next notable close approach to Earth will be on 15 February 2046 when it will pass no closer than 0.01 AU (1,500,000 km; 930,000 mi) from the center-point of Earth.[3]

The asteroid had no risk of impacting Earth on February 15, 2013.[8][6] The uncertainty region of 2012 DA14 during planetary encounters is well determined through 2134.[3]

   •   2012 DA14 was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 16 February 2013.[11]
   •   It is estimated that there are more than a million near-Earth asteroids smaller than 100 meters.[12]

It is estimated that, if it were to impact Earth, it would enter the atmosphere at a speed of 12.7 km/s, would have a kinetic energy equivalent to 3.5 megatons of TNT,[6] and would produce an air burst with the equivalent of 2.9 megatons of TNT[13] at an altitude of roughly 8.5 kilometers (28,000 ft).[13]

The Tunguska event has been estimated at 3?20 megatons.[14] Asteroids of approximately 50 meters in diameter are expected to impact Earth once every 1200 years or so.[15] Asteroids larger than 35 meters across can pose a threat to a town or city.[16]

The table above uses Sentry's stony asteroid density of 2600 kg/³, Sentry's atmospheric entry
velocity (V/impact) of 12.7 km/s,[6] and an angle of 45 degrees.

[thorfourwinds]

FOR THE RECORD

Hi Thor Anderson -

You may have heard of the meteorite that struck the Russian Chelyabinsk region at about 09:15 local time in the region about 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Moscow in the Ural mountains.  The damage caused by the shock wave has been extensive.  As reports continue to stream in, the number of people injured has been increasingly steadily and nears 1,000, mostly caused by window glass blown out by the shockwave.  The amateur videos and pictures illustrate the power that a small object entering the atmosphere at high speed can have.

Estimated at about 10 tons, and about 2 meters across, this object (called a bolide when they are this bright) streaked through the sky at a speed of  54,000 kph (33,000 mph), and due to the extreme forces of atmospheric entry, broke apart between 30-50 km (18-32 miles) above the ground.   

Despite the coincident timing, the Russian meteorite has nothing to do with 2012 DA14, as the objects have decidedly different trajectories.  A fragment from 2012 DA14 would have been moving from south to north, the path of the meteorite is from northeast to southwest.  We will certainly learn more about the nature of this object when fragments from it are recovered and studied in laboratories.

In our previous update, we mentioned that many asteroids pass by Earth with little or no warning. We were not exaggerating.  Despite considerable progress in asteroid detection, only about one in ten close-approaching asteroids are known about ahead of time. While not every approaching asteroid may be detected, and with little warning not all can be prevented, in this case a little warning would have prevented many injuries, and quelled the panic that followed.

Today's events, both with 2012 DA14 and the Russian meteorite, are a reminder that our Solar System is a crowded place. Today was unnerving indeed, and scary and unfortunate for those near Chelyabinsk.  We don't know when the next one of these might appear, but we're working to see it coming!

Be sure to watch the many live events going on today as 2012 DA14 safely passes by, and take the opportunity to learn more about these asteroids that are potentially hazardous, but potentially rich reserves of resources for our future prosperity on Earth and in space.

-Chris Lewicki
President & Chief Asteroid Miner





Are we the only ones to recognize the groundwork being done here?

Recall that the other company, Deep Space Industries, laid their groundwork here previously covered in this thread.

[burntheships]

We thinks this got buried and somehow missed...

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=3585.msg51398#msg51398


Does everyone think this one was flying solo?   

Nice catch Thor,

Cuba, Califiornia, and Japan sightings as well...
The Astonomers may indeed not know everything.

What are the odds?

[zorgon]

From the other thread

It's possible but I think it's less likely than they didn't see it coming, spotting such relatively small objects moving at such a high speed is very unlikely, even when they are looking for them.

Well if they didn't know it was coming, then why were they able to scrabble to shoot it down as early reports told us? And why were so many people ready with cameras?

Small? This was one third the size of DA14... NORAD tracks every piece of space debris over 1" in size.

With all those thousand of high tech satellites out there that can spot a license plate on Earth your telling me we cannot see a rock half the size of a football field?

Cuba, Califiornia, and Japan sightings as well...
The Astonomers may indeed not know everything.
What are the odds?

Fireball/Meteor Over Japan Day Before Asteroid 2012DA14

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

Great work, Thor!

Estimated at about 10 tons, and about 2 meters across, this object (called a bolide when they are this bright)

Darn it, i thought they meant it was shaped like a Ferrari

No, seriously, i'm that thick

Are we the only ones to recognize the groundwork being done here?

Since i saw that post about the solar powered phased laser array, i realised it could become both a means of defense, and for mining, I.E. cutting up asteroids.

I think it's a fantabulous idea, since it would rid earth of dangerous objects, and harvest rare minerals at the same time.
From what i read, even the water content is desirable...

OK so who gets to steer the lasers?

Uh-oh....

Hi Z

Small? This was one third the size of DA14... NORAD tracks every piece of space debris over 1" in size.

With all those thousand of high tech satellites out there that can spot a license plate on Earth your telling me we cannot see a rock half the size of a football field?

Kind of my thoughts exactly, especially the military stuff, but we resolved that by deciding they don't look upward

One thing seems to bug me, it is common knoweledge that a large meteorite carries a bunch of smaller ones along with it.

But it appears that the russian (cuban, egyptian, japanese) one(s) came from a different direction than DA2012etc.
Can anyone confirm this?

No smaller objects preceding / following DAwhatever...?

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

Here is a translated section from a Dutch newspaper columnist today (Saturday)regarding the asteroid:

'Good morning, phew!, what a night that was, we went through the eye of a needle there, the difference was less than 27,000 kilometers!'
'In Russia it turned out differently'
'No, that had nothing to do with it, that was space debris. Empty vodka bottles chucked out of the ISS, what else can you do with it?'
'It's about time they put those glass containers in space, Andre Kuipers {Dutch atronaut} could empty them'

ETA: Thor, extra gold for adding 'asteroids' on page 2, i love that game!

[zorgon]

Comic Relief Intermission....

[zorgon]