NASA warns of cosmic rock travelling at ludicrous velocity

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

A large asteroid is set to pass Earth on Halloween, surprising astronomers who only discovered it two weeks ago. The asteroid, which measures up to 2,000ft in diameter, will flyby Earth at a distance of around 310,000 miles, or 1.3 lunar distances – the largest object to come so close to our planet in recent years.

artists impression obviously


Despite its size, the asteroid – called 2015 TB145 – was found just three weeks before its closest approach by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS I telescope in Hawaii

http://pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/public/
Nasa said it is the biggest asteroid to come this close to Earth until 2027.

"The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit," the space agency said in a statement, possibly explaining why it avoided detection until two weeks ago. "This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within one lunar distance in August 2027. The last approach closer than this by an object with H < 20 was by 2004 XP14 in July 2006 at 1.1 lunar distances."

Nasa said preliminary estimations suggest the asteroid is between 689 and 2,133ft in diameter and is travelling at around 126,000km/h. It should be visible with a telescope and will pass the constellation of Orion on 30 and 31 October. Nasa said it hopes to obtain high resolution images of the asteroid as it passes.

The asteroid's flyby comes as prominent scientists call for more research into asteroid-tracking technology to protect the planet from unknown space rocks. It is currently estimated we have detected around 1% of asteroids bigger than 40m that could pose a risk to Earth.

The discovery of 2015 TB145 also follows the announcement that Nasa had terminated its partnership with the B612 Foundation, an privately funded organisation hoping to launch the asteroid-hunting Sentinel satellite.

Nasa spokesman Dave Steitz told Space Policy Online: "Due to limited resources, Nasa can no longer afford to reserve funds [for the project]. Nasa believes it is in the best interest of both parties to terminate this agreement but remains open to future opportunities to collaborate with the B612 Foundation."

(this is a gif and not what is actually going to happen.) i hope.


Tin hat time

 

[95Viper]

Saw this in title,"travelling at ludicrous velocity"... and, first thought was:

Got these tonight and tomorrow... Orionids meteor shower 2015

The sky is set to host one of its most stunning events of the year this week, as dust left behind by Halley’s comet slams into our atmosphere and creates celestial fireworks across the sky.

The Orionids will hit their peak on the night of 21 October, going into the morning of 22 October.

Hope it is clear weather.

 

[dorsetknob]

Two weeks notice that they found a 2000 ft ( thats' a 600m for our metric brethren ) asteroid that SHOULD pass no closer than 310,000 miles, or 1.3 lunar distances

This goes to show how UNDERFUNDED and rescource Short the near earth object project is
If this object had or was to hit the earth then your talking a near extinction event ( depending on how dense its core is ) and if it did hit somewhere like Iceland it might even punture the earths crust and that would probably would be an extinction event

Even a collision with the moon would have extreme consequence for planet earth

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

That was close call and nobody knew it. My astronomy skill is rusty. How big of an explosion for an asteroid 2000 ft across?

Even if we know an asteroid would hit us, what could we do? A nuclear strike on an asteroid would not do much and would just break it into more pieces.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

A giant meteorite approximately 2000ft across that broke in two as it crashed off Australia, could have been responsible for a mini-ice age that engulfed Britain in 535AD.

The claim was made by marine geophysicist Dallas Abbott at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union

She found evidence of two substantial impact craters in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the northern Australian coast.

In the mid-sixth century, Europe and Asia experienced the most severe and protracted episode of cooling of the last 2,000 years.

Sources from the time refer to widespread crop failures and famines as the unseasonal weather took hold. The Gaelic Irish Annals recorded 'a failure of bread' from 536 to 539AD.

Tree ring analysis by Mike Baillie from Queen's University in Belfast also suggested a cool period. He found the Irish oak showed abnormally little growth in 536 and 542. This phenomenon was noted in trees in Sweden and Finland as well.

The cause, according to historic sources, was a huge dust veil that descended on Earth.

For instance Byzantine historian Procopius recorded in 536AD that 'during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness.

'It seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.'

Until now scientists were divided as to whether the dust cloud was caused by a huge volcanic eruption like Krakatoa or a meteorite slamming into Earth.

The eruption theory has many supporters due to sulphate deposits found in ice cores from that period.

However, Dr Abbott's research suggests the alternative theory. She found satellite measurements of sea levels pointed to two significant craters off Australia, which were 11miles and 7.4miles wide.

According to National Geographic, she was led to the site by large v-shaped dunes along the coast, which she believes are evidence of a great tsunami triggered by a giant impact.

Dr Abbott calculated that the original object must have been 2,000ft across. She also found that core samples from the area revealed material likely to have been melted and then blasted into the sky.


This could fit quite neatly with a 2004 paper in the journal of Astronomy and Geophysics, which suggested an object around 2,000ft across could have caused a cooling event on the scale of AD535.

Other researchers led by U.S. physicist Mark Boslough have dismissed Dr Abbott's theory.

Dr Boslough said if a large impactor had broken up as it approached Earth's surface, the fragments should have 'essentially behaved as one piece', creating just one crater.

He added that Dr Abbott and others had found 'evidence' of more impact events than astronomer's believe are possible.

Dr Abbott has staunchly defended her work. While she agreed her case wasn't 100 per cent proven she said: 'I think we're getting very close to being able to show there were a lot of impacts in the last 10,000 years.'

Video of 2000ft wide asteroid

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

An asteroid the size of 2015 TB145 would do major damage if it were to slam into Earth. For example, the near-Earth object (NEO) that caused the famous "Tunguska event," which destroyed 800 square miles (about 2,070 square km) of Siberian forest in 1908, is thought to have been just 130 feet (40 m) or so in diameter — about 10 percent as wide as 2015 TB145.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...5_tb145_another_space_rock_passes_safely.html

Scientists have discovered about 13,000 NEOs to date, out of a population that numbers in the millions.
If you want to watch live, the Virtual Telescope Project will be observing the pass.


Comet-like?
The orbit of 2015 TB145 hints that it may be "cometary in nature," NASA says.

While it may theoretically be bright enough to see from North America with small telescopes before sunrise on Oct. 31, that will probably be difficult because it will be close to the moon, which is expected to be quite bright, since it will be full on Oct. 27.

The Halloween flyby will actually be the second asteroid flyby of the week. On Oct. 29, an asteroid called 2009 FD about 300 metres in diameter will pass within 16.3 lunar distances of the Earth.


NEO 's

 

[EarthDog]

Want to really know what a 2K' asteroid will do to the earth? Wide spread MAJOR problems and catastrophe. There. No math, just as accurate, and a lot less angry!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Orbital path of 2015 TB145 through the inner solar system on Halloween. Light blue portion of orbit is above Earth's orbit, dark blue is below Earth's orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, with labels by author

At the time of closest approach, 2015 TB145 will come to within 490,000 kilometres of our planet - around 110,000 kilometres beyond the orbit of the Moon. About two and a half hours before that, it will make an even closer pass by the Moon, at a distance of about 285,000 km.

Asteroid 2015 TB145 is certainly a Near-Earth Object, and it is one of the most recent additions to NASA's list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (those of a certain brightness/size that come within 7.5 million km of Earth). However, as it is flying by at a distance farther away than the Moon, this is a harmless pass.

The benefit of this will be that NASA can aim its Goldstone radio antennas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Deep_Space_Communications_Complex
at the asteroid on that day, and obtain detailed radar images of this unusually fast, possibly cometary object. The Goldstone astronomers have labeled 2015 TB145 as "one of the best radar targets of the year" for their radar observations, and they anticipate getting images back with a resolution of about 2 metres per pixel. This will not only confirm the size of the asteroid, but also its shape, and potentially its composition.

"The flyby presents a truly outstanding scientific opportunity to study the physical properties of this object," they wrote in their planning notes.

 

[rtwjunkie]

2meters per pixel is pretty detailed. Thanks for the updates!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

They are FUDing everywhere

keeping my tin hat on and so is the missus

As of June 2015 , 12,849 NEOs have been discovered: 104 near-Earth comets and 12,745 near-Earth asteroids.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

An asteroid thread turns into a haemorrhoid thread....great.


RUMOURED ASTEROID THREATS IN RECENT YEARS
The latest 'potentially hazardous asteroid warning' comes just weeks after doomsdayers claimed the end of the world was nigh after Nasa revealed a giant asteroid is heading towards the planet.

Called Asteroid 86666 (2000 FL10), the 1.5-mile wide (2.5km) space rock made its closest pass on 10 October.

An asteroid of its size has the potential to cause global devastation if it Earth, but Nasa at the time it posed no threat.

In 2011 there were rumours about the so-called 'doomsday' comet Elenin,

which never posed any danger of harming Earth and broke up into a stream of small debris out in space.

Then there were assertions surrounding the end of the Mayan calendar on 21 December 2012, insisting the world would end with a large asteroid impact.

Earlier his year, asteroids 2004 BL86

and 2014 YB35

were also said to be on dangerous near-Earth trajectories, but their flybys in January and March went without incident.

All asteroids are monitored by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab's Near-Earth Object Observations program.

This program keeps track of the orbits of comets and asteroids and publishes warnings if one of these rocks is due to collide with Earth, or will come close to doing so.

People can also monitor the comets and asteroids themselves by typing the name of the rock into JPL's Small-Body Database Browser.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPL_Small-Body_Database

This browser creates an interactive module that can be zoomed in and out of, and filtered to show orbits on different days.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Observers trying to glimpse the space rock using telescopes will have to look late on the night of October 30, and before dawn on October 31.

The huge asteroid will pass Earth at 310,000 miles (498,896 km) or 1.3 times the Earth-moon distance, which is a totally safe pass. It’ll come closer to the moon than to Earth, only 180,000 miles (280,000 km) from the moon.

The space rock’s brightness will be at an approximate magnitude of 10, which is fainter than the eye alone can see. But the asteroid should be easy to spot “slowly” moving across the field of stars if you know when and where to look. And, by the way, although the asteroid’s distance will make this moving object appear to move slowly, this speeding space rock is traveling at 78,000 miles (126,000 km) per hour!

On the night of October 30-31, the asteroid will be traveling across the well-known constellation of Orion.

Preliminary estimates indicate asteroid 2015 TB145 is about 1,542 feet (470 meters) in diameter (estimates range between 689 to 2,133 feet, or 210 to 650 meters). Because of its size, advanced amateur astronomers may be able to see the moving asteroid in telescopes of 8″ in diameter or larger.

Where to point your telescope: If you have a computerized (Go To) telescope, point it to HIP 23301, an 8 magnitude star in Orion before 2:20 a.m. CT on October 31 (Saturday morning) and wait for the asteroid. The space rock will appear as a slowly moving ‘star’ passing very close to this actual fixed star at that time. This view shows a half degree field of view (about the size of a full moon). Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

 

[64K]

I'm not so sure that I would want any warning that an asteroid of the size that would wipe out life was on a course to hit Earth if there was nothing that could be done about it. The chaos that would probably ensue in society would be immense I imagine and then to have to just wait for me and all of my family to die would be miserable. I suppose some people could survive if they had a fallout shelter stocked with food, water and supplies to outlast the "Nuclear Winter" that would likely come from so much material being thrown up into the atmosphere and blocking most of the sunlight assuming they were fortunate enough to be far enough away from the impact site to not be killed when it hit and that their neighbors that knew about their shelter didn't find a way to get into their shelter later on to take away their supplies.

I guess the only way to have any hope to stop an asteroid from hitting the Earth would be a nuclear bomb. Not to try to blow the asteroid up but to set it off beside the asteroid to deflect it's trajectory to avoid hitting the Earth. We would have no idea how much mass and asteroid might have so it would be wise to have a bomb big enough to deflect the largest of the known asteroids. I doubt our present stockpile would contain a nuke big enough to work. I have no idea how big the nuke might have to be. Possibly thousands of megatons. I don't know if that is even possible and it would have to be tested to make sure it works. I don't think it could be tested safely on Earth so it would need to be tested in space possibly on an asteroid that isn't on a collision course with Earth to see if it could work if need be. We would also have to have a rocket on perpetual state of readiness for take off quickly if need be.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

To actually view the asteroid one would need a telescope with at least an 8 inch diameter, cost from about £ 800.00 and up and if you want the tracking kit the skies the limit.

useful for views of the night sky like these

8 inch and digi cam

Jupiter: 8-inch Celestron SCT telescope

M 31, 8" f5 Newtonian stopped to f6(6.67"), 90 minutes

Amateur astronomer Thomas Williamson of New Mexico took this picture of Mars on August 1st. He used an 8-inch telescope and a digital web camera.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

The new discovery in Australia dwarfs Meteor Crater in Arizona, one of the best preserved meteorite craters in the world. The crater in Australia is nearly 250 times larger than Meteor Crater.

The research is published in Tectonophysics.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

@rtwjunkie

regards to your better half hope she is well.


Go To and computerised telescopes...just the stuff

http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/GoTo-Computerized-Telescopes/pc/1/15.uts

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

The Vredefort crater is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, more than 300 km across when it was formed

The previous record holder was the Vredefort crater in South Africa, clocking in at a diameter of 380 kilometers (236 miles.) The Vredefort impact structure remains the oldest known crater in the world, forming about 2,023 million years ago.

The size of the impact zone is so huge that you might be wondering why no one noticed it before now. Just like the crater that was recently discovered on the moon, other geological processes intervened to keep the secret. In the case of the moon, other impacts wiped out most evidence of a crater on the surface. In Australia, evidence of the impact zone was worn away over millions of years, as erosion scrubbed away evidence of the impact on the surface, and new layers of rocks were deposited over the top. How long that process took remains a mystery.


I bet a few hicks lost TV signal when that MOFO touched down.

 

[64K]

The asteroid doesn't even have to impact the ground to cause devastation. A much smaller asteroid exploded about 5 miles above Tunguska in Siberia and flattened the trees for hundreds of square miles in 1908.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska/

btw @CAPSLOCKSTUCK I would love to have a 8 inch or 10 inch reflector telescope but I'm concerned with the "light pollution" because of living close to a city.

 

[sneekypeet]

Thread has been overly cleansed of all the crap!
Feel free to continue to post off topic, I need some more time with the ban stick, its been a while!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

@64K i can lie on my kids trampoline and see the MilkyWay, believe me it is a real treat, i feel sorry for those who never see a truly dark sky.

Considering all the stars visible in all directions around Earth, the upper end on the estimates seems to be about 10,000 visible stars. Other estimates place the number of stars visible to the eye alone – surrounding the entire Earth – at more like 5,000. At any given time, half of Earth is in daylight. So only half the estimated number – say, between 5,000 and 2,500 stars – would be visible from Earth’s night side.
There are 9 galaxies visible to the naked eye that you might see when observing the sky, and there are about 13 nebulae that you might see.

http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/int_dark_sky_places.html

http://darksky.org/idsp/

 

[dorsetknob]

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

May I ask the source?

It seems interesting, and haven't seen anything like it. I'd be interested if they had provided link to where they got the data (and subsequently what research has been done on the larger impacts).

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

May I ask the source?

It seems interesting, and haven't seen anything like it. I'd be interested if they had provided link to where they got the data (and subsequently what research has been done on the larger impacts).

This diagram maps the data gathered from 1994-2013 on small asteroids impacting Earth’s atmosphere to create very bright meteors, technically called “bolides” and commonly referred to as “fireballs”. Sizes of red dots (daytime impacts) and blue dots (nighttime impacts) are proportional to the optical radiated energy of impacts measured in billions of Joules (GJ) of energy, and show the location of impacts from objects about 1 meter (3 feet) to almost 20 meters (60 feet) in size. Image Credit: Planetary Science.

A map released today by NASA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) Program reveals that small asteroids frequently enter and disintegrate in the Earth’s atmosphere with random distribution around the globe. Released to the scientific community, the map visualizes data gathered by U.S. government sensors from 1994 to 2013. The data indicate that Earth’s atmosphere was impacted by small asteroids, resulting in a bolide (or fireball), on 556 separate occasions in a 20-year period. Almost all asteroids of this size disintegrate in the atmosphere and are usually harmless. The notable exception was the Chelyabinsk event which was the largest asteroid to hit Earth in this period. The new data could help scientists better refine estimates of the distribution of the sizes of NEOs including larger ones that could pose a danger to Earth.

Finding and characterizing hazardous asteroids to protect our home planet is a high priority for NASA. It is one of the reasons NASA has increased by a factor of 10 investments in asteroid detection, characterization and mitigation activities over the last five years. In addition, NASA has aggressively developed strategies and plans with its partners in the U.S. and abroad to detect, track and characterize NEOs. These activities also will help identify NEOs that might pose a risk of Earth impact, and further help inform developing options for planetary defense.

The public can help participate in the hunt for potentially hazardous Near Earth Objects through the Asteroid Grand Challenge, which aims to create a plan to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them. NASA is also pursuing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) which will identify, redirect and send astronauts to explore an asteroid. Among its many exploration goals, the mission could demonstrate basic planetary defense techniques for asteroid deflection.

For more information about the map and data, go to: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov

this help?

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

This diagram maps the data gathered from 1994-2013 on small asteroids impacting Earth’s atmosphere to create very bright meteors, technically called “bolides” and commonly referred to as “fireballs”. Sizes of red dots (daytime impacts) and blue dots (nighttime impacts) are proportional to the optical radiated energy of impacts measured in billions of Joules (GJ) of energy, and show the location of impacts from objects about 1 meter (3 feet) to almost 20 meters (60 feet) in size. Image Credit: Planetary Science.

A map released today by NASA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) Program reveals that small asteroids frequently enter and disintegrate in the Earth’s atmosphere with random distribution around the globe. Released to the scientific community, the map visualizes data gathered by U.S. government sensors from 1994 to 2013. The data indicate that Earth’s atmosphere was impacted by small asteroids, resulting in a bolide (or fireball), on 556 separate occasions in a 20-year period. Almost all asteroids of this size disintegrate in the atmosphere and are usually harmless. The notable exception was the Chelyabinsk event which was the largest asteroid to hit Earth in this period. The new data could help scientists better refine estimates of the distribution of the sizes of NEOs including larger ones that could pose a danger to Earth.

Finding and characterizing hazardous asteroids to protect our home planet is a high priority for NASA. It is one of the reasons NASA has increased by a factor of 10 investments in asteroid detection, characterization and mitigation activities over the last five years. In addition, NASA has aggressively developed strategies and plans with its partners in the U.S. and abroad to detect, track and characterize NEOs. These activities also will help identify NEOs that might pose a risk of Earth impact, and further help inform developing options for planetary defense.

The public can help participate in the hunt for potentially hazardous Near Earth Objects through the Asteroid Grand Challenge, which aims to create a plan to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them. NASA is also pursuing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) which will identify, redirect and send astronauts to explore an asteroid. Among its many exploration goals, the mission could demonstrate basic planetary defense techniques for asteroid deflection.

For more information about the map and data, go to: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov

this help?

The source for that picture is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
and as usual any info from wilki is to be consumed with a large pinch of salt

Much obliged.

 

[dorsetknob]

May I ask the source?

The source for that picture is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
and as usual any info from wilki is to be consumed with a large pinch of salt