# Earth Safe from Asteroid's Close Flyby Next Week



## micropage7 (Feb 6, 2013)

_Diagram depicting the passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system_

An asteroid will give Earth a historically close shave next week, but there's no chance that the space rock will slam into our planet on this pass, experts say.

The 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 will zoom within 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers) of our planet on Feb. 15, coming nearer than the ring of satellites in geosynchronous orbit. While the flyby will be the closest ever known in advance for such a large asteroid, there's no reason to retreat to the doomsday bunker.

"NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth," officials at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., wrote in a statement Friday (Feb. 1).
"Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close," the statement added. 
NASA will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) this Thursday (Feb. 7) to discuss the space rock's close flyby.

2012 DA 14 was discovered in February of last year by astronomers with the La Sagra Sky Survey in Spain. The near-Earth asteroid has recently been zipping around the sun once every 368 days, though next week's close pass will reduce its orbital period to 317 days, researchers said.

At its closest approach on Feb. 15, the space rock will be just 1/13th as far from Earth as the moon is. 2012 DA 14 will whiz by our planet quickly, zipping through space at about 17,400 mph (28,000 kph) as it makes its closest pass for at least the next 30 years.
The asteroid will present an intriguing target for skywatchers, becoming visible as a point of light through binoculars and small telescopes during the close encounter. The best observing will be from Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia, NASA officials said. (2012 DA 14 will have faded considerably by the time Earth's rotation brings the object into view for folks in the continental United States.)

Researchers at NASA and other institutions plan to take advantage of the flyby to learn more about 2012 DA14 and its orbit.

"Radar astronomers plan to take images of the asteroid about eight hours after closest approach using the Goldstone antenna in California's Mojave Desert, which is part of NASA's Deep Space Network," space agency officials wrote in Friday's statement.

Several other known asteroids have given Earth an even closer shave than 2012 DA14 will, but those objects were all smaller. Asteroids of 2012 DA14's size probably make such close flybys once every 40 years and actually hit Earth every 1,200 years or so, researchers said.
Of course, other relatively large asteroids have probably zipped very close to Earth recently without being spotted. Astronomers have identified more than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids to date, but perhaps a million or more such space rocks are thought to exist.
If 2012 DA14 did strike our planet, it would likely cause serious damage on a local scale. An object of similar size flattened 800 square miles (2,000 square km) of forest when it exploded above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in 1908.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/earth-safe-asteroids-close-flyby-next-week-210821585.html


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## 3870x2 (Feb 6, 2013)

The Tunguska event happened far from civilization thankfully.  Imagine if this hit New York, this asteroid is 50% larger than the Tunguska asteroid.


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 6, 2013)

3870x2 said:


> The Tunguska event happened far from civilization thankfully.  Imagine if this hit New York, this asteroid is 50% larger than the Tunguska asteroid.



If we could only get all the politicians and lawyers in one place this could be a good thing. Only problem is to get them there we would have to sacrifice a lot of hookers and blow at the same time. Decisions, decisions.

Of course if we succeeded we would have rename this Asteroid the Winneroid.


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## BUCK NASTY (Feb 6, 2013)

TheMailMan78 said:


> If we could only get all the politicians and lawyers *and trolls *in one place this could be a good thing. Only problem is to get them there we would have to sacrifice a lot of hookers and blow at the same time. Decisions, decisions.
> 
> Of course if we succeeded we would have rename this Asteroid the Winneroid.



Fixed!


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## qubit (Feb 6, 2013)

What? I'm _still_ denied my apocalypse?!! 

I'm gonna have a word with God about this, it's just not right. :shadedshu


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## 3870x2 (Feb 6, 2013)

150m3 would only be a local apocalypse.


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## qubit (Feb 6, 2013)

3870x2 said:


> 150m3 would only be a local apocalypse.



Exactly. I feel so cheated!


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 6, 2013)

TheMailMan78 said:


> If we could only get all the politicians and lawyers in one place this could be a good thing.



apparently you have never heard of the District of Columbia


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 6, 2013)

Easy Rhino said:


> apparently you have never heard of the District of Columbia



I like to call it "Mordor on the Potomac".


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## lyndonguitar (Feb 6, 2013)

if by chance an asteroid like this will fall on a bit city for example New York, can they nuke it to pieces? or just evacuate city and let it be destroyed?

what's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present?


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 6, 2013)

lyndonguitar said:


> if by chance an asteroid like this will fall on a bit city for example New York, can they nuke it to pieces? or just evacuate city and let it be destroyed?
> 
> what's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present?



Nukes don't work in space like the do on Earth. No atmosphere. What's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present? Run like hell. If its a planet killer? Die.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 6, 2013)

lyndonguitar said:


> if by chance an asteroid like this will fall on a bit city for example New York, can they nuke it to pieces? or just evacuate city and let it be destroyed?
> 
> what's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present?



This not the lame bruce willis movie


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## lyndonguitar (Feb 6, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> This not the lame bruce willis movie



Damn!~!!! my whole life was a lie


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## RCoon (Feb 6, 2013)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Nukes don't work in space like the do on Earth. No atmosphere. What's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present? Run like hell. If its a planet killer? Die.



yeah nukes don't work, films like to think nukes solve everything, but sadly they don't work. Two possible options exist but we don't have the apparatus for them. One is to burn a hole to the core of the rock, apparently gases within the rock will propel it to one aide or this other, this can be demonstrated with a sunny day, a magnifyiny glass, and a citrus fruit.
The second is a large craft with arms that propels the rock in one direction, by extending big arm like things around the nearmost third.
But I find the run or die options far more realistic


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 6, 2013)

RCoon said:


> yeah nukes don't work, films like to think nukes solve everything, but sadly they don't work. Two possible options exist but we don't have the apparatus for them. One is to burn a hole to the core of the rock, apparently gases within the rock will propel it to one aide or this other, this can be demonstrated with a sunny day, a magnifyiny glass, and a citrus fruit.
> The second is a large craft with arms that propels the rock in one direction, by extending big arm like things around the nearmost third.
> But I find the run or die options far more realistic



There is also (with enough warning) the solar sail option. Again......run like hell is much more feasible. Our governments can't even balance a F#$king check book. I have little faith they will save us from anything major. That's the problem when you have lawyers running the show. Now if they could some how tax the asteroid into not hitting Earth we have a fighting chance.


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## Drone (Feb 6, 2013)

lyndonguitar said:


> if by chance an asteroid like this will fall on a bit city for example New York, can they nuke it to pieces? or just evacuate city and let it be destroyed?
> 
> what's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present?



attach a jet or two and propel it away


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 6, 2013)

Drone said:


> attach a jet or two and propel it away



Jet engine in space? NICE!


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 6, 2013)

you people are over thinking this. all you have to do is knock it off its trajectory early. even the slightest nudge will push it into another planet. if we can track these things when they are outside of our solar system there is no reason we couldn't launch a rocket at it that would throw it off course and into a planet.


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 6, 2013)

Easy Rhino said:


> you people are over thinking this. all you have to do is knock it off its trajectory early. even the slightest nudge will push it into another planet. if we can track these things when they are outside of our solar system there is no reason we couldn't launch a rocket at it that would throw it off course and into a planet.



It has to be gradual man. Depending on the size of it we don't have the technology yet to create enough thrust for a one hit "kill" like that. Its why I said solar sails. A slow pull over time is what is needed. BUT we have to catch it EARLY. Most of the time we see these things AFTER its already passed Earth and leaving


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 6, 2013)

We need tesla's death ray for these types of events!


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 6, 2013)

maybe if we all shoot our guns at it at the same exact time...


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## Mindweaver (Feb 6, 2013)

We just need *Strategic Defense Initiative* aka "_Star wars_"! Aww 1983! I miss you... hehehe


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## 3870x2 (Feb 6, 2013)

lyndonguitar said:


> if by chance an asteroid like this will fall on a bit city for example New York, can they nuke it to pieces? or just evacuate city and let it be destroyed?
> 
> what's the most accepted(and do-able) solution at present?



Think we can nuke something going from 4.7 to 6.2 miles per second?  That would be a tough target to hit I think.

Alternatively we could ask it nicely to change it's trajectory.



Easy Rhino said:


> you people are over thinking this. all you have to do is knock it off its trajectory early. even the slightest nudge will push it into another planet. if we can track these things when they are outside of our solar system there is no reason we couldn't launch a rocket at it that would throw it off course and into a planet.



The chance of it hitting another planet is astronomically low.  That is true however, the most likely action would be to hit it and change it's trajectory, but that isn't for sure guaranteed.


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## Phusius (Feb 6, 2013)

I would finally be able to get laid, women wouldn't care anymore if we all knew we were going to die.  The day the asteroid comes shall be a glorious day for me.


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## _JP_ (Feb 6, 2013)

Just point the ion cannon at the asteroid and fire the moment it gets in range.


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## NinkobEi (Feb 6, 2013)




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## Disparia (Feb 6, 2013)

We're just going to let it fly by? Harpoon it!


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## lilhasselhoffer (Feb 6, 2013)

A nuke, in atmosphere, generates a pressure wave due to turning air into plasma.  In space, a nuke would functionally just be a high temperature spherical particle cloud.  

Firing a nuke at an asteroid would do almost nothing.  The momentum, and shear velocity, are significantly greater than even the largest nuclear device could challenge.  On the other hand, a series of nuclear devices exploding in a reinforced hemisphere could create a force that would redirect an asteroid's trajectory.

The solar sail is the safer, lower impact version of this idea.  


Yeah, a huge asteroid could hit us tomorrow without any indication from scientists.  We find crap in the sky all the time, that we never saw before.  Only a small fragment of the night sky is charted, and even then a nearly black body traveling directly at us might not be visible on the visible spectrum.

Believe what you want, but mother nature is a kind soul compared to the universe.  Nature tends to kill slowly, but space can snuff out all life in one crappy collision.


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 6, 2013)

well one thing is for sure, nobody at NASA is going to consult us!


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## 3870x2 (Feb 6, 2013)

lilhasselhoffer said:


> A nuke, in atmosphere, generates a pressure wave due to turning air into plasma.  In space, a nuke would functionally just be a high temperature spherical particle cloud.
> 
> Firing a nuke at an asteroid would do almost nothing.  The momentum, and shear velocity, are significantly greater than even the largest nuclear device could challenge.  On the other hand, a series of nuclear devices exploding in a reinforced hemisphere could create a force that would redirect an asteroid's trajectory.
> 
> ...



You are right if you include wartime nukes, lest you forget Tsar Bomba and other post-war test nukes.  Tsar Bomba would be about double that of said asteroid's explosive power.  It would definitely get the asteroids attention, now we just need to be able to shoot the nuke out instead of dropping it...


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