Hey, if any of you guys are interested, there's a pretty big "war" going on over at ATS with a bunch of grad students, engineers, etc. arguing about a miscalculation in NASA's modeling in terms of distance from Earth, they're saying it's going to be a lot closer. They've got models, graphs, all kinds of stuff up on the thread.

Just throwing it out there, I like to dabble in the conspiracy fringe every once and a while. It's entertaining, if nothing else.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread773044/pg1

Check this website to watch a live observatory view of YU-55

Hmm, apparently I am not allowed to post links. Seems kind of hypocritical to invite users to post links, then deny them the right to post links, so I'll spell it out for you...

www (dot) collidingstrings (dot) org (slash) strings (dot) htm

There is also an explanation of where particles get the property of mass, and why the LHC will not find the Higgs boson.

Thank you for the clarification, Alan. You are the first reporter I have ever been able to contact directly. Here's my story in a nutshell.

I'm an amateur theorist, cosmology, cosmogony and a novel string theory I began developing around 1979. There were only about seven other people doing string theory in 1979, and I was not aware of them, I thought it was a totally new idea. My Colliding Corpuscular String Theory (CCST) was a completely independent construct. I made the error of mentioning my idea that the electron had a string attached to it to a USAF consultant, to explain the behaviour of magnetic fields. He was way too excited when I mentioned it, like he knew something. In 1980 during my exit interview with my commanding officer I was offered OCS to do physics for the USAF, but I declined.

I've had a website up with a potential solution to the nuclear structure problem for ten years now (written between 1995 and 2001), but I seem to be engaged in a communications vacuum with someone intercepting my email, snail mail, press releases, and all my electronic communications concerning physics. Before the WWW was around someone even entered my house while I was at work and removed several manuscripts. (My landlord called a plumber to work on my sink that day, classic.) I'm tired of playing cat and mouse games with them, whoever they are, so I'm doing my darndest to get as many links out there as I can to get the work discovered. 30 years of my life, dude, and I have a lot to show for it, but I'm having a hell of a time getting anyone to the website to see what I've done.

There is a new cosmology, explanations for dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe, the anomalous accelerations of our spacecraft, what gives a particle the property of mass (and no, it is NOT the Higgs boson, no such animal,) and of course, a solution to the nuclear structure problem that has yet to be tested.

Any one of these things is newsworthy, but I just can't seem to get anyone in the press to pay any attention. I don't know, I seem to be getting at least a few posts up, so maybe whoever's been suppressing my work is finally backing off. The local newspaper once told me they were unable to see my website from their offices, which I found very disturbing. I've been frightened for a long time, trying not to push too hard lest I "disappear," but I'm not getting any younger, so I am pushing harder this time. I think it's largely a knee-jerk reaction on their part, my work involves nuclear physics, and I guess they don't want it out there until they understand it themselves. Still, whomever is intercepting my communications has made no attempt to contact me, they just keep me isolated, and my work remains unknown.

I'd be interested to know if you can see my website from your offices. If NBC can find it in their hearts to look at the site and give me some ink, that would be great, but I'm honestly not sure if you'll be allowed to do so. I know I sound paranoid, and I am, but if every attempt you made to promote your work just vanished for 30 years, you'd be paranoid too. Just please, look at the site (if you can see it,) and help me if you feel you can.

Regards, Jim Barzydlo

If this is any comfort to you, I was able to get to the web site with no problem. The physics are beyond my comprehension, but if I can get to the site, others should not have a problem.

To Arnold Barzydlo

"Any one of these things is newsworthy, but I just can't seem to get anyone in the press to pay any attention."

The way you get attention is to have your work PUBLISHED in a PEER REVIEWED journal. Once it has been reviewed by people who will (should) understand it, they can then tell the press "Hey, look, something new and it works!"

Sorry Arnold, but the press is too busy with the Duggars right now to be able to pay attention to important things. I'll look though! I'm a small drop in the bucket but you gotta start somewhere! :)

Nice hair and 'stache on Twitter Alan!

Don123-4210004

Try it, Don. Tell a peer reviewed journal that you are an amateur and send them a work from your home address. See what really happens. I'll save you the trouble. It goes directly from your envelope into theirs, and is back in your mailbox. There is no review.

Also, there are approximately 200 color images associated with the nuclear structural models; I don't have the kind of money it takes to pay for the three color separations to prepare them for publication, nor a staff of flunkies to prepare all that material to their high quality publication standards. I did however try. It took me almost a full year to do the work myself on one attempt, and they did not even open the seals on it. But I didn't make just one attempt. Remember, I'm an amateur. I solved the problems with geometry. Because Einstein tried to solve the problems with geometry and failed, the physics community as a whole abandoned geometry as a potential way to a solution. The only real math you'll find in my work are the pairs of linear equations describing the geometry of the nuclear models.

I have dealt with the editors of journals, and I have resolved NEVER to waste my time in that way again. But I invite ANY of you out there to see how far you get when you try to point out that both James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein made an error-in-kind that put physics into the quandry it is in today. I'll flush the whole damned 30 years of work down the toilet before I'll EVER approach one of those idiot rags with their idiot editors again, thank you very much. No, Don, if you are an amateur, the press is the only venue available to you, because peer reviewed journals do not consider you to BE a peer, so they don't even bother with you. They think you're just wasting THEIR time.

And another thing, don't try writing physicists directly either. Because they DO have staffs, and printing departments, and secretaries, and prestigious return addresses. No, your peer reviewed journals are trash, and your popular hero's of physics are conspirators and frauds. They simply could not demean themselves by admitting where the ideas really came from. Some young, naive fool from Lincoln, Nebraska who was trying to solve the problems using geometry. 32 years ago I asked them for help to get a proper education, and I showed them my ideas, and I never heard back from them. They abandoned me to work in a factory for twenty years while they took credit for those ideas. I never got that education, I had to educate myself. In retrospect, I probably got a much better education than they did, because today I have the answers, and they don't. And now I know from bitter experience what Einstein meant when he said that to succeed in physics you have to keep your mouth shut.

My work is on the web, you can see it there. Anyone with a high school education and an interest in science can understand it with a bit of patience and thought. The universe is mostly simple geometric constructs. Getting physicists to understand that is what is hard. Give me a man with no idea how the universe works, and I can explain it to him in a couple of hours. Give me a professional physicist, and it could take weeks to break down all his pre-conceived notions to get to the same explanation. (And then he'll publish it and take credit for it.) :oP

Rest assured you are not paranoid or crazy. Your experience in the military afforded you to a bit more of an inner glimpse of how things really work. Fact is most will not understand your plight because it strays so far away from the picture of the comfy life everyone seeks to live. Essentially only others that have struggled through a similar type of situation will be able to grasp or even hear what you have to say. Our picture of life is very orchestrated. Good luck.

At any rate, Arnold, if the ideas have merit and can be understood by the physicists, then even if 'they' are stealing them, at least you will have succeeded in exhibiting and conveying your thought processes to people who can make use of them. And that way, you might have contributed to the advance of science, even without receiving personal recognition.

Jim Barzydlo,

Using a pseudonym (Arnold Barzydlo) does not help if you are going to post your Real name (even if Arnold is your middle name or such). Creates suspicion.

Anyway, having been in the Nuclear (Physics) Field (specifically Nuclear Weapons). Anytime you use the term, "Nuclear", you can get "Red Flagged" by "No Such Agency", that does and has been monitoring All US and World Communications (the Teraflop and beyond what we know of as "Super" Computers they have are used for something). Before all this "Terrorist" stuff, you could get the guided tour. This monitoring was Legal under some Nuclear Secrets Law and those US Laws, Regulations, etc. that also established the CNWDI security classification, some being 1950s Laws. Think really carefully, can your ideas even be remotely used for any form of Nuclear Weapon, or used in the creation of an Advanced form of a Nuclear Weapon (beyond the current concepts), or maybe something that is a not only a Nuclear Weapon but very advanced Technology (example, Mass Particle Beam Weapons), or even a means to figure out how to make a Nuclear Weapon or Advance Technology Weapon or Nuclear Weapons Component or even an Advanced Space Drive (your post "the anomalous accelerations of our spacecraft"). Do NOT answer these questions here and darn sure do not send me an email (as contact this author))(I have enough problems of my own). An example of this was during the early phases of the US Nuclear Programs and Missile Programs as these Scientists were really not allowed to go anywhere or say anything (basically put in isolated remote areas with layers of internal and external Security) as a matter of National Interests and National Security.

Later US Congressional attempts to Monitor and Censor all US Communications, were known as the George Orwell, 1984, "Thought Crimes Laws", (House of Representatives) H.R.1955 and (Senate) S.1959. H.R.1955 and S.1959 were defeated as Unconstitutional.

In 2009, various parts of the defeated as Unconstitutional H.R.1955 and S.1959 were put into President Obama's January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (Plural) that legalized the Monitoring and Censorship of All US Communications, that were considered as Illegal under President Bush's Patriot Act (singular).

Under threat of prosecution, February 2009, under the President Obama Patriot Acts, many internet websites (www), created censored US Only Internet Sites while their International Websites are not viewable at the US as http//404, http//403, "Blocked in your Region", "Not Available in Your Zone", and youtube started "Must Register (with Physical Location (Address) verification) to View Contents", "Must Register to Post on this Site" (things that were not required by youtube.com before).

The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were required without Warrant to provide the Physical Locations (Addresses) of Customers to "Government Entities" (not only Law Enforcement).

This is how, 2011, the Secret Service ended up at a School within hours and detained and questioned a student (no lawyer or parents) for posting on Facebook a warning to President Obama of increased Bombings by Islamic Terrorists after the Termination of Osama Bin Laden. The computers of "No Such Agency" picked up on the Key Words, "Bombing", "President Obama", so instead of another Agency of ODNI (pronounced "Odin", Norse God) the President Obama's Secret Service showed up as a possible threat to President Obama.

So basically, it is very easy to be "Blackballed" or placed on Homeland Securities or another Agencies "Watch Lists".

You also might have someone that you personally know (a REAL Computer expert, not a wanna be), to check your computer. As a worst case scenario, formatting your hard drive(s)(Erasing and writing over all sectors of your computer's hard drive) then restoring your computer's operating system (from a clean source) to eliminate any possible Nannyware (recording everything you do on your computer, and sending the information in the "background" (below the thresholds of Antivirus, Antispyware, etc. software, as sometimes hidden as part of the operating system) as a means of "High Tech" Espionage). Never ever save anything valuable on your computer's hard drive, use an external hard drive, and even then make sure that you delete the Registry value that links your computer to that document saved on your external hard drive, including the MRUs. Technology is great until it backfires and is used against you. I have been a computer enthusiast (term we used back then, now a days "Nerd", "Tech") since the 1970s. Your computer expert will also tell you all the "work arounds" (if they are a real computer expert).

By all means get your work Published for recognition (then you cannot be "disappeared" without drawing public attention and investigations), copyright (someone else cannot claim ("steal")) your work, etc..

Anyway back on Topic. This is a missed opportunity. As it would be really great to have sent up a multiple sensor (including many video cameras) station with redundant systems to be anchored to YU 55. As an inexpensive means to explore areas on the flight path of YU 55.

Gentlemen:

Thank you so much for your kind comments and support. I half expected to log in tonight to flamers, but I see that some of you percieve the situation quite well.

Doug-950479:

All a scientist can really expect is credit for his or her contributions, and I do feel that they have a right to expect and pursue that, but I have forgone it in some circumstances. Indeed, I believe I have made contributions that have channeled the thinking of physicists into new areas. There is some small satisfaction in knowing that my space-time maps are plastered on the walls of researchers the world over, and frankly, they are much prettier than my original crude drawings were. Unfortunately, they are not given in their original context, and therefore do not make the significant point they were intended to depict. I'm ok with that, because the map of the expanding universe is a clear indication that a geometric argument is often vastly easier to conceptualize than an equation depicting the same parameters. What I was trying to depict was the thin dividing line between past and future, and how Einstein's refutation of simultaneity actually indicated that everything occurs in synchronization with the phenomenon of the present, and that it could be thought of as an impulse wave of energy propagating from past to future in the time-like dimension. Einstein's point was that the rulers we use to measure time were flexible, and that we could not determine the simultaneity of two events by relying on those rulers, because clocks run at differing rates due to their differing inertial frameworks. So far as the physical reality we experience is concerned, everything happens "now," regardless of the inertial framework we find ourselves in. A person moving at 99% of c is still experiencing the same "now" that we are, his clock is merely running slower due to the diminished rate of physical interactions in his accelerated framework. This map was used to reintroduce the concept of "absolute time" as a distance measurement from the primordial singularity in the time-like dimension, and to point out that the Planck constant that appears in all our physics equations is actually a reference to this impulse wave travelling from past to future in the time-like dimension. Unfortunately, when Stanford physicists "borrowed" the map to make a pretty depiction of the history of the universe as time plotted against the expanding dimensions of space, they left the dividing line depicting the phenomenon of the present out of it, and the purpose of the space-time map was lost. That was a significant loss, because the original maps showed that the primordial singularity was clearly injecting new pulses of energy into the manifold at the beginning of space and time, and that energy was merely being conserved in its passage from the beginning of time to the end of time. The wavefront of an energy differential between past and future. It implied that where there was one such injection, there were probably many, implying there are probably many discrete phenomena of the present, or "nows" travelling in the time-like dimension, each one recording a new QM history for all the objects in the universe. Knowing this, we can dispose of the sloppy "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is objectionable because it violates every conservation law. By theorizing that there are multiple phenomena of the present propagating in the time-like dimension (I call them "delta waves") we can recognize that all objects in the universe have a pre-recorded set of QM histories that they can follow, or they can cut a new and different QM history by expending some of the energy of the impulse wave that defines our particular experience of reality. That probably sounds complicated, but when you map it out it is much easier to see what I'm talking about. If my explanation seems baffling, go to the MSM pages on my website and wade through them for a clearer understanding of absolute time and the cosmological foundations of the theory. Anyway, the point needs to be made that when these bozo's "borrow" my ideas, they generally change the context in an attempt to make it appear as though the idea was their own, and it does a great disservice to science by intentionally leading other scientists astray. It is dishonest, wasteful, and damaging in our mutual pursuit of the truth.

Role Player and david-475776:

First, my real name is Arnold James Barzydlo, my friends call me Jim. Just thought I should clarify that. I was careful in my prior posts not to mention who I thought might be responsible for my apparent isolation, since I have no proof. I have labored to remain transparent to them, and there may well be "Nannyware," as you say, on my computer. I will make no attempt to seek or remove it if so, (unless it bogs down my computer games), as that would only raise suspicion as to what I may be trying to conceal. I simply keep the government's secrets as well as my own tucked safely into my brain, where it is much more difficult to detect. I was a USAF Instrumentation Mechanic working at HQ USAF Satellite Control Facility. I held a secret security clearance. I took oaths to protect secrets to which I was privy, and to defend this nation against all enemies of the Constitution, both foreign and domestic, and I still take those oaths quite seriously. I will point out that there may be a conflict of interests in those vows. My first and overriding duty, however, is to the preservation of the human race. A technical civilization faces many challenges, and I recognize that we must either embrace the technological advancement of our species, or perish. The discovery of the laws governing nuclear structure are as important to the advancement of our species as was the discovery of electricity. It will lead to an astounding revolution in our materials science. We are going to need this technology to face the challenges of the future as the weight of humanity grows upon this planet. I fully recognize the significance of what an understanding of nuclear structure will mean to us, probably more so than most. I cannot in good conscience allow it to be suppressed, if there is any chance that I have indeed discovered those laws, it is my sacred duty to insure that they are recognized and tested. Yes, it will lead to many new technologies, just as the discovery of electricity did. That is the point.

I have many registered copyrights, and prior to 1981 I had free access to Notary Public services. I periodically had my notebook notarized to establish diligence on my ideas. I'm sure the people who "borrowed" ideas from me were not aware of that. Still, I have no interest in litigation. I believe in justice, but I don't believe for one moment in America's "Justice System." Judgement is God's business, not mine.

David, that seems like an astonishingly good idea, and I really think you should pursue it and present the idea to NASA. Using near miss asteroids as instrumentation platforms to explore the solar system is rather inspired. And you're right about the nuclear security issues, they clamped down right about the time I put up my website. I'm doing what I can, but what I can do alone is not enough, I need help to get the work tested, and there are many predictions of the theory which can be easily tested. The most significant test would be to point our telescopes at the Great Attractor and look for evidence of that mountain in space-time with the core object of nuclear ice (N-Ice) at its peak. There should be a severe optical distortion. It should seem as though we are looking through the wrong end of the telescope, the energy-density of space-time in the region should be incredibly high, and the galaxies in that region should appear much farther away than the wall of galaxies behind that region of space-time. That fizzing ball of nuclear ice is where all the missing mass should be, and it is a direct prediction of the string theory. CCST is the only string theory that makes predictions of any kind, and that core object for the universe is its most significant and dramatic prediction. It simply has to be there. If not, my cosmogony is wrong. The thing is, astronomers seemed surprised when they said they had to use a microscope to count the galaxies in that region, and I don't think it has occurred to them why that is. So, they need to take another good hard look and get some distance measurements. As far as the nuclear structure models go, I think chemists need to check the electric moments of the nuclei I've been able to solve for, as well as the p lobes and hybridized electron orbitals, and see if they match reality. I'm already pretty sure that Boron has strong matches.

Again, thank you for your support, I truly appreciate it. Regards, Jim (Arnold J. Barzydlo)

It would break the stalemate in congress? Bring it on!

this person is not happy with is life ! that is all to it !

you are simply pathetic...if you want mankind to end...end yours first selfish bastard.

Would you like it to land in your living room, Greg?

FWIW, the article pointed out that an asteroid of this size could level a city or cause a local tsunami, but is not large enough to cause any sort of extinction event, or to be a threat to life as we know it.

Probably more on par with Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki.

Cjsk- Exactly....

It is Numbnutz's like Alan and Carolyn that are the humans I am talking about... It would shake up your little existence... Humans need to understand that this sort of thing has been happening since the dawn of time..

What makes us any different than the dinosaurs? Humans need to be reminded that we are nothing special in the big scheme of things... Actually more like a Cancer on the Earth we are so determined to eradicate in ourselves..

Someone has told Alan and Carolyn that they are special.... I think there is an Olympics for that...

I actually wonder if Alan or Carolyn is wearing their black Nike shoes and matching sweatsuits.... I am guessing both are Christians.. Christian or a Heavens Gate cult member.. Same kind of thinking.. A mysterious entity that no one has ever seen or heard, yet they follow it till their death...

There is as much of a chance there is a spaceship behind that asteroid as there was behind the Hail Bop comet and just as plausible as Jesus floating up to some sort of god...

In this instance if Alan was part of the spaceship cult he would of course need to be castrated... More than likely he already is because you can't count the little grapes in mens coin purses like him anyhow...

Carolyn has pretty much summed up where she spends most of her time... I love how humans assume everyone else sits in the same stationary place as they do...

Greater chance it will hit the moon....

I wish it would land on Wasington DC.

cjsks - FWIW, the article pointed out that an asteroid of this size could level a city or cause a local tsunami, but is not large enough to cause any sort of extinction event, or to be a threat to life as we know it.

Depends on the composition (density of materials) of YU 55. How about this, less dense rock versus a solid iron ore YU 55. Say if it were solid iron ore (near high nickel content steel), impacting Earth; resulting in not just the impact and something like a nuclear explosion but an EMP/EMR burst that wipes out all electronics on the Earth (including the digital electronics to manufacturer microprocessors). How would all of you like to live like an Afghan for say a few years (maybe decades), until all the Electronic infrastructure of the US is rebuilt. And yes, that would include most of today's vehicles (multiple computers, microprocessors, alternators, etc.). The only things at the US and maybe Worldwide that would survive that type of EMP/EMR event would be those with vacuum tubes (like the Russian Federation and Chinese Militarises use to limit EMP/EMR vulnerabilities.). The other possibility is if YU 55 is made up of toxic metals like "Depleted Uranium" or near Plutonium (a particle will kill individuals), even events like the 9/11 2001 Attacks "Dust" is killing the First Responders. As just like many here (Newsvine) keep thinking that the effects of Nuclear weapons remain in a neat circle on a map, this is not true, look at the effects of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Crisis (and that was not a Nuclear Explosion) with radioactivity increases detected Worldwide.

(Extreme Sarcasm) how would you like to be breathing in the vaporized remains of those fat bast*rd self serving US Politicians of Washington D.C. even if you live at California or the other side of Earth, as posted by tony-2290571 - "I wish it would land on Wasington DC."

Greg, I agreed with you until you started throwing insults. Thanks to your childish behaviour (others' childish behaviour is no excuse), I will now have to disagree with you out of spite for your uncivil attitude.

Me too...

Actually, I have read that it is being monitored very carefully as it passes by to refine its orbital data to make more precise calculations of future orbits, so relax.

Thanks for the link, Alan. I appreciate your willingness to interact with readers and respond to questions.

Alan Boyle,

Anyone do any calculations as to if YU 55 can impact the Moon, and the results (effects) on the Earth (of course depending on where on the Moon YU 55 impacts (affecting/effecting Lunar Orbit or not)).

I would like to think that any scientist would remember to take Earth's gravity into consideration and this is a calculation that a high school physics student could approximate pretty well using Newtonian mechanics.

David,

I haven't done the calculations either, but from what the article says the asteroid is not large enough and does not have enough velocity to affect the course of the earth or moon should it impact. It would take quite a lot of force to do such a thing even though simply a small change in course would be enough to doom the object (even if it took a few thousand years).

Post Edit: Mr. Boyle has answered your question a few threads down, David.

How about "space" seals?

I agree, "space seals" doesn't sound too bad! I'll be the first to go!

alsophia theophilos, Tyler Carrin,

Just something that bothers the heck out of me (various reasons, that you don't need to know).

"seals" are the animal.

SEALs (Sea Air Land, Acronym) is for the US Military USN Asymmetric Warfare Forces, an earned Title by going thru Hell Week, BUD/S, etc..

And also the USN SEALs are not the only "Elite" US Military Asymmetric Warfare Forces, as now a days most US Military Asymmetric Warfare Missions are Joint Operations (including the Termination of Osama Bin Laden, not made Public for multiple reasons) and not only limited to the USN SEALs like most people assume (Ass-U-Me).

There's an alien invading force behind the asteroid. Free rectal probes for all!

your nuts - I heard that there was a spaceship hiding behind the rock.

Or the 1985 movie, "Lifeforce". How about 1984 movie, "Night of the Comet". "Night of the Living Dead" (one of the first "zombie" movies) started with a small asteroid impacting Earth (the radio news reports in the movie). There is also the concern that a space object impacting Earth and bringing a virus or another life form hostile to human existance.

Cynic-537088 - There's an alien invading force behind the asteroid. Free rectal probes for all!

1996 movie "Independence Day Fourth of July" (aka ID4), Pilot (Crop duster, previous Vietnam War USAF F4 Pilot) Russell Casse was not too happy about that Alien anal probe.

oh man, Night of the Comet!

Talk about a trip down memory lane, what an awesome movie that was.

D.Man - oh man, Night of the Comet!

Some one in the design field of my previous US Military Officer Career Field, Nuclear Weapons (Physics); told me that that is one of the concepts for future Nuclear Weapons, to destroy Human Life and not the actually physical things (buildings, resources, etc.), as later "Enhanced Radiation Nuclear Weapons" based on "Science Fiction" Books prior to "Night of the Comet". Even the threat of using this type of "Enhanced Radiation Nuclear Weapon" negated the value of the USSR's and Warsaw Pact's 101 Armored and Mechanized Infantry Divisions stationed on the Borders of Western Europe to invade Western Europe (this is one of many things that really ended the "Cold War" 1945-1990, not made Public, except by the USSR claiming this was a Offensive not Defensive US Nuclear Weapon.). The concept of Science Fiction becoming Science Fact after we figure out how to accomplish the Science Fiction (new ideas and concepts).

I really like this one (her Father was US Army Special Forces): Samantha - "Daddy would have gotten us Uzis". (after her MAC-10 jams). As originally when the MAC-10s were "Tested" by us (in Combat), we had the same problems, and switched to Uzis (today some us of US Military Asymmetric Warfare carry micro Uzis submachineguns as "side arms", instead of "pistols").

Wow --- that was the most proper capitalizations I've ever seen in one post. --- LOL

If it landed in North Dakota would anyone notice?

Other than the souvenir hunters, that is...

Hey, I live in Fargo. You're darned right I'd notice!

On the plus side, maybe if it landed in my back yard I'd get a nice hole for a swimming pool out of the deal...

UH, I think it was Hale-Bopp, I think Mr. Hale would be tickled to be 'hailed'

fedup, you sound like a Cain supporter.

Asteroid impacts on the moon have been observed before during human history. I don't have the specifics, but I remember reading about a monk who wrote about an impact some 500 years or so ago. He didn't know what he was looking at, but from the way he described the flash and the peeling away of a skin from the moon, it's clear that he was seeing a large impact. I think most of the ejecta would be rather small, and not all of it would hurl toward Earth.

@One really fed up boomer

thats pretteh pathetic, we're talkin interlectually about this topic and you bring an insult in here

no one has started anything bout religion or politics, get your dumbass outtha here please,you just stated an insult >.>

anyways, interesting post

btw, fed, this person journalist seems to be repling to questions ask, with facts and links

other then blaming journalism now a day, why dont you write an article

Id be hard pressed if you say this journalist is being BIAS agaisnt a spacerock

its obvious that somthing of that size can hit the moon and cuase pieces of the moon to be lost, like a crater, but you're looking at a moon and earth picture drawn to scale for kids. The distance is immense.

Little fact or not, i was assuming u knew as much O.o

It could end in an instant or from a lesser strike, a few days. A sobering thought. How many times have mass extinctions taken place here? More than once . . .

The way I figure it authorities wouldn't tell the public if a big hit were going to occur. What would be the use? If we were headed for a strike large enough to cause global winter I'd rather not know a week ahead of time. People would go absolutely nuts for sure. It'd make a good movie, no?

Hope-295312 - The way I figure it authorities wouldn't tell the public if a big hit were going to occur. What would be the use? If we were headed for a strike large enough to cause global winter I'd rather not know a week ahead of time. People would go absolutely nuts for sure. It'd make a good movie, no?

They already made many movies about that (including many really crappy ones): Asteroid, 1997; Armageddon, 1998; Earthstorm (impact on Moon), 2006; Three Moons Over Milford (impact on Moon), 2005; etc..

Alan Boyle,

The Question what is YU 55 made of (NASA's Scientific Terms of: carbonaceous, silicaceous, metallic) determining the results of an impact on the Earth or Moon. example: The Results of being shot with a slingshot and a one ounce low density "rock", versus being shot with the same slingshot and a one ounce lead (metal) fishing weight.

No panic here, as what can anyone do anyway if something happens.

The issue is where do you plan a trip? You'd obviously want to plan any landing before it gets reasonably close to the Earth (assuming you decide to or are able to land at all) but at the speed it's moving how long would you have to attempt an excursion? I think a probe would obviously have been a better idea and frankly I'm surprised they didn't really consider it when you think about how proactive we've been with asteroids lately. It really is a missed opportunity.

Seems like we ought to at least send some automated equipment to ride this asteroid around the solar system and transmit data back to Earth if for no other reason than to track it location in case something unexpected bumps it into a different orbit. At some point we may even want to piggyback payloads on these things to carry them between planets. We could have a package ride the asteroid between Earth and Mars and have it drop off at the most advantagious point saving fuel to push it there.

I'm with you on this, Ron Wall. I think we should have been ready to start practicing moving things like this (if that's even possible) so we'll be prepared when we have to. It might have been fun to steer it into the moon so we could see the "fireworks".

There is always the 'law of unintended consequences' though. Any practice we do on moving objects like these may change the asteroid's projectory (or whats left of the asteroid) enough that it will be aimed straight at us the next time around.

It's really unfortunate that we don't have any rockets that can attain an orbit that high. The space shuttle didn't have the capability to come anywhere near the moon and the replacements to do so were canceled due to funding issues. Other than robotic craft, which are missions that take several years of production before they're sent up, we can't get close enough to practice anything.

Society is reactive, not proactive. You know that. If we really were proactive we'd be in much better shape than we are now. It will never happen and the only way anything will get done is unfortunately for an actual strike to take place. Even then what do you do after that? You can only keep people prepared for so long before we just settle back into our old ways.

I am sure the dinosaurs were arguing with all their teeth when they got hit by that past asteroid. Society is just an accident as far as one person can be concerned. We are here to survive, by hook or crook, on our own. It is definitely too bad we can't get along and start "looking up."

Good choice, but I'd prefer it hit, ohhhh say some where in the vacinity of Afghanistan, Pakistam. . .

I would agree but for two things: U.S. troops stationed in the area; and the Taliban attempting to claim responsiblity.

How about downtown Tehran? We don't have any troops there...yet.

Like I said before, all of you think that the effects (based on density) will only be confined to a neat circle on a map.

And

gunman-3813827 - Good choice, but I'd prefer it hit, ohhhh say some where in the vacinity of Afghanistan, Pakistam. . .

My men, women, myself are at Afghanistan near the border of Pakistan conducting US Military Asymmetric Mountain Warfare. Id!ot,

OneVoice-664990 - How about downtown Tehran? We don't have any troops there...yet.

And if the Fundamentalist Islamic Iranians start to claim this was a Nuclear Strike by the US ("Great Satan"), and everyone else gets involved, including their Nuclear Weapons Allies, the North Koreans, Chinese and Russian Federation, then what, WWIII.

Thank Jupiter for "cleaning out" the inner solar system.

Agreed!...And thank Gene Shoemaker for bringing this phenomenon to the forefront, helping us to understand the risks and to prepare.

I'll never forget the comet that slammed into Jupiter some years back, it split into 4 pieces and made Earth sized craters in that planet. You can only guess what would have happened had it slammed into our planet. If it made Earth sized craters on Jupiter, I can only assume it would have smashed the Earth into pieces. That was a major Solar system event of the type that only happens once in millions of years.

Thank Jupiter for "cleaning out" the inner solar system.

First of all, accretion by a Jovian size planet can be good and bad. For all we know Jupiter might have been the cause for the dino killing asteroid. For a rather pedestrian space rock all it takes is to get sucked into Jupiters gravity well and get shot out at a rather high velocity and bear down on Earth where if Jupiter wasn't anywhere close to it it might have just wandered by. The bigger point is it's hard to tell just how much accretion can be contributed to Jupiter. Of course it's safe to assume there's quite a bit that it has been responsible for but it's hard to know. Saying that, I'd say it's a bit presumptuous to assume Jupiter helped "clean out" the inner solar system. More than likely the inner solar system was already fairly accreted by the time Jupiter had any meaningful impact. Now, outer solar system asteroids, that's more than likely a different story.

In an Astronomy class I took at a prestigious-if-corrupt four-year university, we used data from local and national telescopes as well as some new data taken for the project by the University's own staff and telescope equipment to track previously-unknown objects of significant size. This is a standard every-semester project for this 200-level class. I share this story to help illustrate James' point.

p.s. I named one of the objects I discoverd Ass Teroid but NASA didn't seem to think it was as funny as I did and renamed it to something like DS233.

Imagine: in the beginning was emptiness. Then, for some reason all this stuff got together around the sun and accumulated perfectly until humans existed. And we are simply waiting for a rock to randomly fly by and kill us all by impact with this perfectly formed ball? God must come into the picture at some point. That's all I can say. Pretty pitiful, I realize, but I'd rather not read some heavy book and think I've found the answer. Take a breath and enjoy your existence, I say.

Sucks for Houston!

Hey! djones! YOU'RE the moron! AND so is the political party that you affiliate with! The political party that I (and other non-morons) affiliate with is so much classier and well-dressed!

Also your political party smells like my roomate's laundry/fast food disposal basket.

(please don't ban me this post was a joke!)

LOL

You bring up a good point. I'm surprised they haven't thought about plotting the trajectory of this asteroid and landing a probe either on it or in orbit and follow it out to whereever it goes and back. The only issue is that if it follows along and sees nothing interesting it'd be money wasted. Then again that's why you project the orbital path and see if it would be worth it. Maybe they already have.