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Subscribe to RSSOn Feb. 15 a giant asteroid will be visible as it passes very close to Earth, and there are also predictions of a large solar storm. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
It may sound unsettling to hear that a potential killer known as asteroid 2012 DA14 will be coming closer to Earth than telecommunication satellites on Feb. 15, but don't panic: Earth's gravitational field will give it such a kick that we'll never have to worry about it again.
"It has been getting closer to Earth for quite a while," Donald Yeomans, the head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters on Thursday during a preview for the close encounter. "This is the closest predicted [flyby] for this object both in the past and in the future."
NASA's calculations show that Earth's gravity will perturb the 150-foot-wide (45-meter-wide) asteroid's orbital period, which had been getting close to Earth's own one-year orbit. "Earth is going to put this one in an orbit that is considerably safer than the orbit it has been in," Yeomans said.
That makes 2012 DA14 nothing more than one of the universe's most vivid reminders that we live in a cosmic shooting gallery. The rocky asteroid's orbit is so well-known that Yeomans can say it will pass by Earth at a minimum distance of 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers), plus or minus 100 miles. That's in the "sweet spot" between GPS satellite orbits (6,000 to 12,000 miles) and geosynchronous telecom satellites (22,000 miles), Yeomans said.
He said that there's an "extremely remote" chance that 2012 DA14 could hit a satellite on its way in or out of Earth's neighborhood, and that satellite operators were being given orbital tracking data as a precaution. But William Ailor, an expert on orbital debris at The Aerospace Corp., told NBC News that the chance is hardly worth worrying about.
"The fact is, we don't have collisions very often, even among the satellites that are there all the time," Ailor said. "Space is very active, but there's a lot of it above us."
NASA video previews the Feb. 15 close encounter with asteroid 2012 DA14, which will bring a 150-foot-wide space rock within the orbit of Earth's telecommunication satellites.
Yeomans said the prime viewing for 2012 DA14 will be available from eastern Europe, Asia and Australia, where it will be dark during the time of closest approach at 2:24 p.m. ET Feb. 15. But even at its brightest, the asteroid will still be too dim to see with the naked eye. You'd need a binoculars or a small telescope to spot it, and you'd have to know exactly where to look from your locale. During the close approach, the asteroid will be moving across a patch of sky nearly twice as wide as the full moon every minute. "That's very fast," Yeomans said.
If you're lucky enough to catch sight of the asteroid, don't expect to see any detail. "What you would see through a small telescope would be something that looked just like a star, a small point of light," said Timothy Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Yeomans said the asteroid will be passing by at the speed of 17,500 mph (7.8 kilometers per second). "That's roughly eight times the velocity of a bullet from a high-speed rifle," he said.
Scientists aren't even sure exactly what 2012 DA14 is made of, although they suspect it's a rocky L-type asteroid. To get better information about its size and composition, experts plan to use radio telescopes in New Mexico and California as well as other astronomical assets.
NASA's Donald Yeomans answers the most commonly asked questions about the Feb. 15 close encounter with asteroid 2012 DA14.
2012 DA14 was discovered less than a year ago by a Spanish team at the La Sagra Astronomical Observatory, and initially stirred up a wave of doomsday worries. Fortunately, NASA quickly analyzed the observations and ruled out any chance of a collision.
Experts estimate that 150-foot-wide asteroids zoom as close to Earth as 2012 DA14 will every 40 years or so, and actually hit Earth every 1,200 years.
If the asteroid were on a collision course, Feb. 15 would have been a very bad day: A rocky asteroid that big would explode into pieces on the way down, releasing as much energy as a 2.5-megaton atomic blast. Such a scenario took place in 1908 when a space rock blew up over the forests of Siberia, knocking down millions of trees over an 820-square-mile area, Yeomans said. That's not as big of a catastrophe as, say, the impact of a 6-mile-wide asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago — but if Siberia's "Tunguska Event" had occurred over a city, that city would have been wiped out.
Earth may have lucked out this time, but Yeomans noted that "there are lots of asteroids we are watching where we haven't yet ruled out an Earth impact." In 2011, NASA estimated that more than 90 percent of the near-Earth objects wider than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) have been identified and put on the tracking list. However, only about a third of the objects between a kilometer and 100 meters (330 feet) are being tracked. And NASA has detected only a small proportion of the estimated 1 million asteroids that are smaller than 100 meters but still capable of doing significant damage — asteroids like 2011 DA14.
"It's an effort that will take another decade or two," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program.
More about asteroids:
- What to do with a killer asteroid? Ideas wanted
- Sorry, Bruce: The asteroid would win in real 'Armageddon'
- Search for near-Earth asteroids needs a speed boost
- Cosmic Log archive on asteroids
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Last updated 10:30 p.m. ET Feb. 7.
Leave a Comment:
Oh, dear. Global warming and now this . . . killer astroids, oh my.
and not to mention pointless posters......
...and don't forget 'self-righteous' trolls!
Sure hope Earth's gravitational field...is a better kicker then those in the NFL. Or we are DOOMED!
It's just a little planet destroying asteroid. What could possibly happen?
Hope it hits washington d.c. and takes out the senators and cogress and especially the skunk!...then we can start over...
My god now we're naming winter storms?...Jim Cantore probably has a woody right now!!
Actually, I think it's "supposed" to HIT on Feb 14th....and that's just perfect.
Uh oh, time to stack up on beer and porn....those two would be hard to come by if by chance you get knocked over to Uranus by the asteroid!
Oh @!$%# it's Nibiru! The Mayan's called it wrong on 12/21/12 - the new date is 2/15/13
ahhhhh!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can see Maxwell Smart (Don Adams r.i.p.) sitting on the asteroid as it flies by saying "missed it by that much".
The government has assured us there is no danger...now i am concerned...not so much before
Anon--if it were going to hit Earth, we wouldn't even be told!
If we don't see Odumbo on Jay or Dave in the next week - I guess we should be concerned!
The Doomsday Preppers don't look so whacked out now, do they?!
Hopeful American, just in case you didn't get the memo, President Obama was reelected with 51% of the popular vote and 332 electoral votes, becoming only the 4th person in the past 100 years to be elected TWICE with more than 50% of the popular vote. He beat the best and the brightest that your party had to offer, not once but TWICE. He managed to get his signature agenda item, the Affordable Care Act, passed in his first term. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton all TRIED to get universal healthcare enacted, but failed. Only President Obama was able to do so. You can call him names all that you want, but in the end, your side is still made up of LOSERS and President Obama and the Democrats still won, still are in power, and still get to set the agenda. Have a pleasant day.
Vince
Obama got Obamacare passed by not following Senate Rules according to Sen. Byrd. Remember Reconciliation? He also got it passed over the objections of about 65% of the American people.
2012 DA14 could hit a satellite on its way in. Boy I hope it don't hit Garmins' satelitte then some dumbass might drive off a cliff because it told them too.
Oops! 65% Americans are now loving the Obamacare. Republicans were telling lies about the Affordable Health care legislation to fool the American people. Remember Sarah Palin and her "death panels." Now, the "finger-wagging" governor from Arizona says Obamacare is a good thing. Obama does care, after all.
The news media says that the Asteroid will be flying by at an altitude above the earth of 17,000 miles and a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/07/16888433-asteroid-2012-da14-is-closing-in-for-a-close-encounter-and-a-swift-kick?lite Isn't the orbital velocity of 17,000 miles per hour going to mean we might capture this Asteroid in an earth orbit? Escape velocity is 25,000 miles per hour and this is going slower than that. (unless the report was wrong about its speed.
Vince and American Patroit,
LMFAO......
You two are a joke only reason he won was because the free loaders like you two voted for him people with jobs did not. And see that there are more free loaders well you get the picture.
As far as Obama care the only reason that was passed was because it was not written until after it passed and still today I don't think any one read it.
As far as it being a good thing well why don't you go talk to people that it hurt like the elderly and those that just lost their job because of Obama care. Also those that had their insurance paid through pensions are now being dropped.
Also this is not the post to praise your false God so go away.
And thanks to Obamacare, do you know how many businesses are no longer hiring full time employees? It's hard enough finding part time work these days, but try to find full time work that has benefits and you aren't going to have much luck. Sure, the unemployment rate is down some. But what about the full time employment rate? They don't give us those numbers, but my bet is that full time hiring is down 15-20% in the past 3 years. They don't want you to know all of the other effects Obamacare is having. They talk only about having healthcare. But are you better off being able to get a full time job that offers benefits of some sort, or having to settle for a part time job with no benefits and then be fined if you don't pay the high cost of personal insurance?
Ah! Hmmm: all the one's they sent to china. Stop your trolling and get a life. Go read a porn book or something.
Riamus: Over the next few years, those that wanted the ACA are going to find out that is has a lot more in common with killer asteroids than they ever imagined.
Yeomans said the asteroid will be passing by at the speed of 17,500 mph (7.8 kilometers per second). "That's roughly eight times the velocity of a bullet from a high-speed rifle," he said.
Amazing that a Bullets speed was used in this characterization. Pitiful....
Plus A bullets speed is measured in Fps (feet Per Second)
Scientific terms rate speed as per the speed of sound and in this case this object is moving at a speed of about 8 times the speed of sound or 16,380 fps.
Furthermore a .22cal Long Rifle round travels at about 2200 fps making it a supersonic round but in no way is this round considered a high powered rifle. Even though a bullet proof vest will not stop it when its fmj (full metal Jacket)
Hey, people, we're discussing an asteroid, not the Affordable Health Care Act. Go discuss that nonsense somewhere else.
"...in other news, every former "Doomsday Prepper" guest happily jumped into their bunker with their Korean War army helmet, M16, and proclaimed they will be eating Chef Boyardee from a can for the next several weeks..."
.
The main point I got from this article was that this asteroid wasn't even discovered until less than one year prior to its closest approach. That tells me that the one that has us in its sights is still incognito...
Sounds like we need a ban on "assault asteroids"!
My bad. It's actually 26,542 fps or aprox 13.25 times the speed of sound which means the editor of this post hasn't had enough coffee today or can't do math. b/c this is equal to almost 12 times the rate of a super-sonic bullet. (high powered rifle)
If it were to hit us you would get to blink a few times before it made impact.
You are slightly confused. This is a science article, not Big Bowl. We use meters here, not feet. Also, there is no speed of sound in the vacuum.
Yeah I was referring it in terms that people can understand just like the person that wrote this article did even though he was not correct. Plus, 0 gravity doesn't indicate a vacuum.. It indicates that the human body would have 0 psi pressing against it. A vacuum is less than 0.
yup, it's that bad, bad black man obama trying to kill us again. the question is, how did those gun-hating dems get that darn rock up there? QUICK! it's a FAUX NEWS ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they'll tell us the truth, all right.
too bad we cant pull it in to hit Iran or NK. 2 birds with one stone...
First, I like Obama so a Bronx cheer to the sorry right wing of this country.
Second, as a space object approaches a planet it gains velocity during the approach and loses it with the departure. But as I understand it, it also gains or loses velocity from the planets rotation depending upon its approach. At the equator the earth is rotating at better than 1000 miles per hour which is why space launch facilities are located in Florida rather than Maine and why most satellite launches are from west to east. (California spy satellite launches are generally used for make a polar orbit.) When the Voyager probes passed the big gas planets, JPL and NASA used their gravitation fields and rotational energy to boost the velocity and steer them to the next planet. One of the Voyagers is still transmitting as it passes into interstellar space. Therefore, I think our countries space agencies know what they are talking about, but as an aside, Comet Shoemaker-Levy broke up into a dozen smaller objects due to the tidal forces of Jupiter and on its return all collided with the giant planet over a four day period. Each collision produced a scar larger than the earth. Look it up and have a nice day.
so it could hit a satellite... then what? could it hitting a satellite change its direction?
PS. The orbital velocity of a Geo-syncronous satellite at 22,500 miles above the equator works out to be 10,175 ft per second. This asteroid will reportedly have a velocity of 17,500 miles per hour at its closest approach relative to earth or 25,660 ft per second. That is the approximate orbital velocity of the ISS at an altitude of 300 miles but well above escape velocity at 17,200 miles.
Perhaps there is a reason why the earth has no natural satellites besides the moon which supposedly formed from the remnants of a collision with the earth 4 billion years ago. Mars has two captured satellites while the outer gas planets have dozens each. Asteroids pick up too much velocity as their orbit takes them to the inner part of the solar system for even a large planet like the earth to capture them.
Well this was fun, get out the binoculars.
@ Vince:
Unfortunately, Way too many Americans have gotten used to being on the dole. It will right itself in 4 years. Fortunately, we control the House - and that won't change. And I hope to see an impeachment of the Tyrant-in-Chief!
Bye asteroid. Don't let the earth hit you in the ass.
I must confess I am enjoying your vitriol as much as reading Alan's blog here. Whether you like it or not, the fact is that the country is now on the right path, and it's kind of funny that you have so much trouble dealing with the fact that a half-black man is taking us there.
LOL
hence: "In space, no one can hear you scream"
duh!
No it's not. I mean it is for dole collectors. But for real Americans, it is not - and we will fix that! Half-black, half-white, half-purple - I don't give a crap what color he is. He's a tyrant and not and American.
it would be cool to watch it hit the moon
Everything is political.
@ Richard:
"Anon--if it were going to hit Earth, we wouldn't even be told!"
Why?
This is not a 'dinosaur extinction' asteroid, it's only a 'take out half a city' asteroid. You *can* get far enough away to be safe, if you're told that you're near the impact point. You might as well try to hide an approaching hurricane, in that you can get out of its way, the 'big bad government' has no monopoly on its existence and direction (other countries have weather satellites, and ships and planes will know full well that something's out there. By the same token, other governments, and thousands of amateurs can also track a known asteroid. One Tweet, and the information is everywhere.)
Second, if it was an asteroid of mass-extinction size on a collision course...others will still know it. And what would be the point of concealing it? Mass panic? So what? If we're all likely to die regardless, does it really matter if people freak out now...or later, when it becomes a naked-eye object? Precisely what would you gain from secrecy, even if it were possible to have it?
Don't waste time on conspiracy theories that are neither possible, nor of any benefit to anyone...
johngis
"so it could hit a satellite... then what? could it hitting a satellite change its direction?"
Short answer: No.
This object seriously out-masses any man-made object in Earth orbit, and probably all of them put together. (Even ISS, which is to low to be at risk) Could you change the course of an out-of-control tractor-trailer by throwing a drinking glass at it? No. But you'd get similar results...the satellite would be shattered, perhaps with some of its mass being embedded in the asteroid itself. But to even to say that it would effect an infinitesimal course change would be...generous.
@Hopeful American
"Everything is political."
Not to asteroids.
@Edward F. Dijeau;
The escape velocity (the speed that a ballistic object requires to escape the gravity well of a body) you quote is for the surface of the earth. The escape velocity at 17,000 mi from earth is about 200 mi/hr. That is, the object must be moving at 200 mi/hr in the outward vector as it extends from the center of the earth. This asteroid is approaching earth tangentially. Note that a some point, the outward velocity will be zero or less for a very short time. This is where the bend in trajectory will occur. As it moves away from earth, the vector of velocity increases relative to the earth. At that point, it will escape our neighborhood.
Anyone else see the headline about a "swift kick" and get their hopes up that we were going to nuke the thing? Now I'm sad :(.
That would be "bad".
Not yet, no. Maybe next time, yeah?
I have no doubt many who read about this are praying it hits the earth, because they want mankind wiped off the face of it.They think man is nothing more than a plague, overpopulating this planet, which needs to be destroyed. Having no possible good or future. So nature can be returned to its perfect state.
Then again, not sure how many would actually be praying, given the number who actually believe all religion is a horrible curse, responsible for every single problem mankind has,(forget about what power,famines, real plagues, stupidity have caused) from the beginning of man.So asking a not existing deity to bring about man's end would be silly, right? I guess it's back to "Eat, drink and be merry, for next week we
dieget a nice view for some of an asteroid passing really close by!"I pray quite a bit. Not that the earth would be hit by this asteroid. I laugh at people who think religion is the cause of our troubles. It's like people are forced to do what they do?
Problem is that this asteroid is to small to destroy the human race. It will make a heck of a mess in the area that it hits but it is not big enough to cause fire storms and massive ash clouds that would block the sun.
I.E You do not want to be within a few hundred miles of where it lands, but beyond that, it is not something the whole world would worry about.
It is GOD fault ...he put it there for it to crash into this world."Someday"
Maze, Live by satans ways and die by eternal fire. It's pretty simple like that.
It's not Gods fault, but it is his Law and his warning since the beginning of our time on earth.
You probably would be happy to know that our scientists' have discovered that we are all descendants of a vermin better recognonized as that of a filthy Rat.
Hey "chosen", didn't your God create your Satan? Seems to me God created Satan so he had someone to blame for all the evil he's created.
yup, it's the 'debil' alright. eeeeeeeeevil debil.
If god knew from my birth that I'd end up spending eternity burning in hell then why did he make me just to suffer?
And if free will is the variable then God isn't all powerful and doesn't know everything after all.
It's my fault.
The 15th is my birthday and I wished on a shooting star that I would get a sh*t ton of gold.
Sorry, guys.
Your free will and God's all knowing nature can both be preserved in the deep recesses of Quantum theory. If God is capable of seeing every outcome that can exist ( as in seeing and comprehending the multiverse ) Then he can see all that you could passably do and yet you can still make your own choice as to what universe you would like to perceive.
It goes to the theory that all things that are possible can and do happen in an infinite number of universes. Your decision to wake up at 6am in this universe is what you perceive but there are other universes that you literally woke up at every different time and, ofc one where you died in your sleep.
What would determine your fate with god could vary well be the balance of good you did verses evil you did inside the mutiverse. Kinda like if you did more good in the balance of universes then your good to go.
In this, god would not have to know 1 outcome, he would have to know all of them and it preserves your ability to make choice because all things that can happen do and you are simply choising what you perceive
If I put an ant within a petri dish and place various food sources randomly about the container, I can foresee every possible outcome as to which item the ant will investigate first. But since I do not know which path the ant will take ahead of time, I am mortal not divine. Thus your argument contains a fundamental flaw.
@ QE137 Very Deep analysis
@QE137: I believe in the 'Many-Worlds' interpretation of quantum physics, so I believe you have a point. But if this is indeed the way the Universe works, it means that 'somewhere.' every single possible variation of how you possibly could have chosen or behaved, you did choose or behave.
There's no preferred Universe or timeline. All the others are just as certain of their reality as you are of yours...
"In this, god would not have to know 1 outcome, he would have to know all of them and it preserves your ability to make choice because all things that can happen do and you are simply choising what you perceive"
...and so, the definition of 'you' and 'your' is no longer what we are accustomed to taking it to be. Does God judge them all, even though they all must happen...?
Well, I am not god and I don't know how his mind works, but I had guessed in my post that he simply takes the balance of good vs bad that you do within the multiverse. Really though, if god is there, he could have any number of ways of determining who is "worthy", or maybe everything we think we know about if god makes a choice at all is just plain wrong.
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The problem is that you do not have to know. In the theory I put forth, the ant would have made all those choices at the same time just viewed differently from each universe it happened in. In this, Every thing that could possibly happen dose happen at the same point in time and space, but you only perceive your version based on what choice you made.
This is often hard for people to understand because they get locked in the loop of thinking that if all decisions are made that they should know about all decisions that have been made and that is not the case. You know about the current universe you live in because this is the universe your choices led you to perceive. You are here in this time and perceiving this because it is just 1 of a never ending number of possible outcomes.
When your in Quantum land, you have to just toss everything you think you know, because it dose not work the way you expect and it dose look vary much different and far more strange then anything in the reality you think you know.
I should also point something out. God dose not have to exist at all, but there is nothing in science at all the proves he/she/it dose not exist. Those of us who love science tend to believe only what we can see an observe and we, many times are vary narrow minded about what we observe. If we can all see a vast universe, with natural complex information systems and a mathematically precise universe ( or multiverse ) then is it so hard to simply let your mind open to things that you can not yet prove?
I just think we should not look at God as being imposable or the province of the uninformed. Science can live with God.
Thanks Alan..
Wow. Is this the space version of a close shave? And what do we do if the asteroid is projected to actually hit Earth? Doesn't NASA have a plan for that? Or is it just about calculating our deaths?
Or have Mayor Bloomberg ban it.
bow2me, weapons of mass destruction and guns aren't allowed. We can shoot it with slingshots, though. :)
I thought our number 1 goal in space was to land on an asteroid. Here's a 150 ft asteroid within 17,000 miles, we don't even have to go find it, it found us. Seems like we would've tried to take advantage of that. Oh well.
if we can detect them in time we can do a number of things. First of gravity is almost equal to mass so we can use a probe to alter the direction of the rock over a long period of time much like a tractor beam. Secondly we can shoot it with things that cause a push force to also change the direction. I think the probe would be a better idea due to a treaty we currently have in place. The biggest issue is spotting them. We are aware of very few and our ability to spot them way off is limited.
In the case of this rock, it is not big enough to cause mass damage around the planet. It would make a heck of a mess in a relatively small area ( maybe a few hundred miles effected by the blast ) if it hit land, but since earths surface is covered mostly in water, we are likely talking about a water landing.
Either way, this rock would probably not really be worth attempting to shoot. We would likely track it and predict where it would fall and hopefully get the people in it's path out of the way.
Now, if your talking about something that is the better part of a mile wide, then that is vary different. This rock in coming is only about half the size of a football field.
@bigteks1
"I thought our number 1 goal in space was to land on an asteroid. Here's a 150 ft asteroid within 17,000 miles..."
And it's going by too fast to do anything about. It would be easier to grab a passing high-speed train. Pure and simple.
And land on it with what? We don't happen to have a manned spacecraft handy to reach it, even if it magically parked itself in a stable orbit...
@bow2me
"QE137. What do you suppose would happen if a large one hit the moon.
Let's say a 1 kilometer asteroid hitting it head on.
Would that slow the moons orbit?
If one 10 miles across hit the moon. What would that do?
I would hate to have the moon fall on us?
A quick look at the Moon shows us that it's been hit many times by bigger stuff, and it's still up there.
It would depend on the speed and direction it was hit (some directions would technically raise its orbit), but don't underestimate the mass and inertia of the Moon. Not much is going to happen in terms of changing its orbit, until you throw objects at it, that are a significant fraction of the moon's own mass.
But objects on the scale you're talking about would blow a lot of material to Lunar escape velocity, some of which could be expected to make it down here. (Indeed, we already call Lunar material that reaches Earth as impact ejecta, 'tektites.') Would they be big, dangerous pieces? It...depends.
What would we actually do if we discovered a asteriod that was 6 - 10 miles across? Definitely a global killer. something like that to hit the Earth would turn it into a Mars like planet. Maybe that is what happened to Mars a billion years ago?
As was briefly stated before by Richard the Lionhear we, the population, would never be told. That is policy with any E.L.E.. Chaos is a very big consideration. Maintaining the "norm" is essentially the greatest concern. It is most important that if we are to perish we should be "going about our business" as if we hadn't a care in the world. Meanwhile our glorious leaders would be snuggled in some deep bunker awaiting the opportunity to re-populate the world with a more politically correct society. So don't worry be very happy in your ignorance of impending doom. No matter when it happens, the government only has "your best interest in mind". I feel better already...
so... carry on...
There are so many non-government people observing space and the internet is so quick and passing information around the world that we would know about something that large if it was going to hit us regardless of what the government does or says.
Exactly right, Riamus.
In fact, as the article points out:
"2012 DA14 was discovered less than a year ago by a Spanish team at the La Sagra Astronomical Observatory, and initially stirred up a wave of doomsday worries. Fortunately, NASA quickly analyzed the observations and ruled out any chance of a collision."
"As was briefly stated before by Richard the Lionhear we, the population, would never be told. That is policy with any E.L.E.."
And again, 'says who?' What policy?
"Chaos is a very big consideration. Maintaining the "norm" is essentially the greatest concern. It is most important that if we are to perish we should be "going about our business" as if we hadn't a care in the world."
Again, if our destruction is certain, why does that matter? What would be gained?
"There are so many non-government people observing space and the internet is so quick and passing information around the world that we would know about something that large if it was going to hit us regardless of what the government does or says."
Riamus is absolutely correct. No one has a monopoly on telescopes.
We would make a law banning it then sit around a fire singing kum ba yah.
that coulda been obama's asstroid.
Why worry about it?..We can't do anything about it.
What bow2me? What could we do?
probe to change its direction or blasts to change its direction
@ COYOTEHUNTER Good Advice
I wish we could give it a swift kick and direct it to hit the Moon so we could watch the fireworks.
And if it hits the right spot maybe it will change the moon's smiley face to something else!
asteroid gets kicked and not captured
Who knows, it could take out an important military satellite, Now wouldn't that be interesting! And if it altered its course enough so next time it came around, it smacks into something important like Mecca,. Who knows what that kind of implication would have.
cmon rock! maybe it will just take out fox and the republican side of congress?
You have to factor in the area of the blast. The asteroid that hit Russia in 1908 devastated 820 miles. You would wipe out more than you desired. Not to mention, since when has getting everything you wanted in life all the time, ever made anyone truly happy? Seems to me, it has always led to people getting spoiled and ungrateful. Balance is needful, as nature amply demonstrates with her checks and balances.
@joe
Why? Someone has to work.
"Who knows, it could take out an important military satellite,"
Who knows?
The path it will take near us is well established. Anyone with an active satellite that will be anywhere near that track at that time, will take whatever steps they can for collision avoidance.
Everyone who needs to know, already knows. No mystery.
Cant it be defeated with Preparation H?
I was just going to add that. GO PACK!! next season.
Bush's fault.
True that. Isn't it always. Maybe in about four years it wont be anymore. Bush was such a dump truck that they gave us Obama.
This seems to a great opportunity to see if we could destroy an asteroid.
capture, and mine it for gold.
hollow it out and make it a home.
capture it and make the worlds biggest and highest billboard...lol
space baLLS.
How does one stop an asteroid from moving at 17,500 miles/hr to "mine it" without an "oops my bad mtsr1, srry you got incinerated."
Just slow it enough to put it into orbit.
"This seems to a great opportunity to see if we could destroy an asteroid."
Practicing on an object in deep space (perhaps in the main asteroid belt) that won't pose a risk no matter what mistakes we make, would have value.
Messing with a close one that we nevertheless know will miss us?
Do you know the expression; "If it ain't broke, don't fix it...?"
"This seems to a great opportunity to see if we could destroy an asteroid."
Practicing on an object in deep space (perhaps in the main asteroid belt) that won't pose a risk no matter what mistakes we make, would have value.
Messing with a close one that we nevertheless know will miss us?
Do you know the expression; "If it ain't broke, don't fix it...?"
I can just imagine Jack Van Impe squealing with glee like a little piggy. "Come on, asteroid! Give us another Sodom and Gomorrah!"
Obama will use this as an excuse to raise taxes....
triacjr and bow2me show their complete ignorance. Obama doesn't control the tax rate or gas prices. Republican's in the House of Representatives control the tax rates and Exxon, Shell, BP etc. control gas prices.
Waaay to much fox noise watching by these two.
What the federal government didn't tell us is that this is another drone in disguise.
"That's roughly eight times the velocity of a bullet from a high-speed rifle,"
Shouldn't that be eight times the speed of a high velocity rifle? I never heard of a high speed rifle, until now.
I haven't seen a high velocity rifle. How fast do they go? I lay my rifles down and they just lay there. Do I have low velocity rifles?
Now I do have high velocity bullets. They go about 2800-3200 ft per sec. when I fire them out of my low velocity rifles
they were just confused by it having 30 in the clip, thus making it a high velocity rifle
I did check the quote on that one... Have to admit I don't know rifles that well, but I think folks get the idea, whether it's high-speed, high-velocity or high-powered.
good job Al!
The news media says that the Asteroid will be flying by at an altitude above the earth of 17,000 miles and a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/07/16888433-asteroid-2012-da14-is-closing-in-for-a-close-encounter-and-a-swift-kick?lite Isn't the orbital velocity of 17,000 miles per hour going to mean we might capture this Asteroid in an earth orbit? Escape velocity is 25,000 miles per hour and this is going slower than that. (unless the report was wrong about its speed.
That would all depend on trajectory. In this case, we won't capture it, but will alter its course away from us instead.
unless it hits something...
just high capacity all the way around
We could realistically mine some of these near Earth asteroids, if we could find a way to safely park them in Earth orbit. But I think that is the only realistic way we are going to be able to mine any of these asteroids anytime soon. This is something to keep in mind, anyway! - RC
If it really is going to go past us at just 17,500 miles per hour then this could be the one that gets captured. If you look at all the craters on the moon, you will see where the earths gravity well has sucked up rocks that orbited until they struck the moon as they crossed it's smaller gravity well. Our Apollo Missions showed we could not escape our gravity well unless we achieved a relative earth departure speed of 25,000 miles per hour.
As mentioned above, that depends on trajectory. We aren't going to capture the asteroid. Instead, we'll push it away from us.
Great idea. If we could get one in the right place, it could serve as the upper end of the space elevator.
The article says it will pas the earth at 17,500 miles per hour yet in the NASA drawing it will traverse the orbital distance of the moon in 8 hours. That would be over 70,000 miles per hour yet it is orbiting at about the same 43,000 miles per hour the Earth is orbiting the sun and is coming up parallel to our Earths solar orbit. Every site shows a different story. Disinformation is like saying we are going to be hit but nobody wants to say"I told you so".
You can see the formulas and more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_speed and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity .
No one can say with 100% accuracy what this chunk of rock will do, but they can try and predict a likely scenario using computer generated models.
One can never really call the shots on something like this, especially since we did not make it, nor do we have any control over how it moves.
They use a simple term like KICK?
I think they will be watching this thing very carefully with fingers crossed of course.
Later.
"Kick" is the correct term. Earth's gravitational field will give it a "kick", and change it's orbit. All of our spacecraft use the "kick" method.
Like I said, this is not something we made or can truly control and yes I know what kick is.
I still stand by my comment in saying this chunk of space debris could do a lot of things.
Unexpected things just saying and they don't really know how this thing might react as it skips so close too the outer part of that so called kick moment.
It could do something different and perhaps give us all a little over the top touch down.
Kick or slingshot effect, we use gravity assist to speed up or slow down spacecraft on interplanetary trajectories.
Not so much...the math is pretty solid, unless the trajectory is altered it will travel as predicted.On the other hand how hard do you believe it is to land anything on another moving body with any accuracy? That math is very hard. This is cake comparatively.
The news media says that the Asteroid will be flying by at an altitude above the earth of 17,000 miles and a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/07/16888433-asteroid-2012-da14-is-closing-in-for-a-close-encounter-and-a-swift-kick?lite Isn't the orbital velocity of 17,000 miles per hour going to mean we might capture this Asteroid in an earth orbit? Escape velocity is 25,000 miles per hour and this is going slower than that. (unless the report was wrong about its speed.)
You don't have to keep spamming. See previous replies to see why that is not going to happen.
Show me the math. Since we have to trust those who say they are tracking this why is it the animations don't show the true trajectory including the actual speed and the influence of the earth's gravity. They just say "trust us". it reminds me of the WMD.s that did not exist in Iraq that got us into a war. Even the Author, Alen Boyal, trusts the wrong information like the 17, 500 mile per hour speed yet even he should know that that is "Orbital Speed," not an Escape Velocity needed to leave Earth orbit. You can not come that close and that slow without capture..
"No one can say with 100% accuracy what this chunk of rock will do,..."
As long as Newton's laws of motion and the gravitational constant don't stop working, yes we can.
Calculating an escape
velocity
To expand upon the derivation given in the Overview,
where is
the barycentric escape velocity, G is the gravitational
constant, M is the mass of the
body being escaped from, r is the distance between the center of the body and the point
at which escape velocity is being calculated, g is the gravitational acceleration at that
distance, and μ is the standard gravitational
parameter.[5]
The escape velocity at a given height is
times the speed in a circular orbit at the same height, (compare this with
equation (14) in circular motion). This corresponds to the fact
that the potential energy with respect to infinity of an object in such an orbit
is minus two times its kinetic energy, while to escape the sum of potential and
kinetic energy needs to be at least zero. The velocity corresponding to the
circular orbit is sometimes called the first cosmic velocity, whereas in
this context the escape velocity is referred to as the second cosmic
velocity"[6]
For a body with a spherically-symmetric distribution of mass, the barycentric
escape velocity
from the surface (in m/s) is approximately 2.364×10−5
m1.5kg−0.5s−1 times the radius r (in
meters) times the square root of the average density ρ (in kg/m³), or:
[edit]
Deriving
escape velocity using calculus
These derivations use calculus,
Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal
gravitation.
[edit]
Derivation using only
g and r
The Earth's escape speed can be derived from "g", the barycentric acceleration due to
gravity at the Earth's surface. It is not necessary to know the gravitational
constant G or the mass M of the Earth. Let
surface.
Above the Earth's surface, the acceleration of gravity is governed by
Newton's inverse-square law of universal
gravitation. Accordingly, the acceleration of gravity at height s
above the center of the Earth (where s > r ) is
g (r / s)2. The weight of an object of mass
m at the surface is g m, and its weight at height s above
the center of the Earth is gm (r / s)2.
Consequently the energy needed to lift an object of mass m from height
s above the Earth's center to height s + ds (where
ds is an infinitesimal increment of s) is
gm (r / s)2 ds. Since this decreases
sufficiently fast as s increases, the total energy needed to lift the
object to infinite height does not diverge to infinity, but converges to a
finite amount. That amount is the integral of the expression above:
That is how much kinetic energy the object of mass m needs in
order to escape. The kinetic energy of an object of mass m moving at
speed v is (1/2)mv2. Thus we need
The factor m cancels out, and solving for v we get
If we take the radius of the Earth to be r = 6400 kilometers and the
acceleration of gravity at the surface to be g = 9.8 m/s2, we
get
This is just a bit over 11 kilometers per second, or a bit under 7 miles per
second, as Isaac Newton
calculated
Knowing the above and if the 17,500 mile per hour accelerated by gravity speed, if the 17,000 mile estimated altitude is correct, the altitude escape velocity would be under the 17,500 so the Asteroid would not be captured. This assumes that the 17,000 Altitude is calculated from the surface of the earth rather than the center of the earth and the true mathematical altitude for the equation is 21,000 miles from the center of the Earth. My question was, that when they showed the original orbits of the Earth and the Asteroid, they did not account for the changes that would occur in the direction and speed of 2012 DA14 in the diagrams. Since the Earth and DA-14 have similar orbits and speeds, the crossing, without acceleration due to the earths gravitational acceleration, was looking like a crossing speed of less than 8,000 miles per hour. Many Astronomy Programs will show the known orbits of two objects and will lay them stacked on one another without to the Calculus of there gravitational influence on each other. If 2012 DA14 was passing within 500 miles of the surface of the earth or 4500 miles from the Center of the Earth, we would get capture at the 17,500 mile per hour speed. As you get further away, the orbital speedd becomes less and the Escape velocity also becomes less. At 17,000 miles the Asteroid will make a turn because of the Gravitational influence on it's direction but that will only alter it's orbit around the Sun.
You can see the formulas and more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_speed and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity .
Personally kiddies, I would more concerned about potential earthquakes, and or volcano's. Yellowstone is long over due for a mega eruption.
Don't worry, Bruce Willis will save us.
The Jury is still out on this one, the Orbital data models suggest a possible closer approach, and dependant upon solar influance model 2 shows a higher approach, meaning its 50/50 on what it will do. We wont know untill a couple hours before it gets here.
The most devastating effect of a large impactor would be the water waves generated by an ocean strike. A kilometer wide object would generate waves as tall as the ocean is deep. Mile-high (5280ft!!!) waves would sweep over the coastline of any ocean it hit. A pacific strike would generate oscillating waves over 100 feet high across almost every coastline on the planet. The seawater vaporized by the energy of the strike would create storms unknown in the history of man.
And man would be history.
The news media says that the Asteroid will be flying by at an altitude above the earth of 17,000 miles and a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/07/16888433-asteroid-2012-da14-is-closing-in-for-a-close-encounter-and-a-swift-kick?lite If it struck the earth at 17,000 MPH, it would not be as destructive as one traveling at 40,000 MPH. The orbital simulations show we are crossing paths with the earth traveling a little faster than the Asteroid. Isn't the orbital velocity of 17,000 miles per hour going to mean we might capture this Asteroid in an earth orbit? Escape velocity is 25,000 miles per hour and this is going slower than that. (unless the report was wrong about its speed. Could this be the reason the "Space mining" company was formed? The first one there gets to claim all the Gold and precious metals.
lets hope it hits. i sure would not mind it wiping out this planet. the human race has destroyed it anyways.
Maybe it'll hit Chicago.
Yeah,a new crisis for rahmn to exploit.Sure beats them just shooting each other.
I was hoping it would hit Iran.
The asteroid is approximately the same size as the one that made the "mile-wide crater" in AZ.
That's right... but the Arizona asteroid is thought to have been an iron-nickel asteroid, while this one is thought to be rocky. That's why this one would blast itself to pieces in an airburst if it came in for impact, rather than hitting the ground and creating a crater.
But if it *did* blast apart in an airburst, it would still be a hell of a lot of energy released. It would be something similar to the Tunguska blast. "Atmospheric disintegration" isn't the same as "nothing happens".