Astroid coming very close 2006-3-6

I was watching the forums to see if anyone else knew about
this one. Asteroid 23187 (2000 PN9) is 1.7Km in Dia. It will be
doing a fly by at 7.9 lunar distances this weekend.
Its the closest approach I have seen ever.
When you use the orbit simulator it is hard to distinguish
earth and the astroid when zoomed in full. I am hopeing that the
earth or moon does not tug on this one.

Link to orbit simulator:
neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

Link to NASA's schedual to watch this one.
They declared it "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid"
echo.jpl.nasa.gov...

Read the disclaimer at the top of Harvard's web site that list near Earth objects.

cfa-www.harvard.edu...

The distances quoted are from the nominal orbit solutions in the cited references and can be quite uncertain, particularly for one-opposition objects.

According to them 2000 PN9 has had 4 oppisitions, so I suppose they have a fairly good idea of it's orbit, but I still believe these calculations are give or take a few thousand miles. Nice find.

I can not make heads or tails of astronomy language [yet], does anyone know if this is something that is visable with a decent sized backyard telescope? And if so, from what parts of Earth/when?

Thanks

NN

[edit on 3-3-2006 by NoNik]

Form what i can tell, It will be moving most of the time, wont be a static object.
But in the night march 5-6 should be visible high in the sky with binocs , should be moving south to north. Dont know if that helps.

Any idea on how we can catch its energy?

If the calculations aren't accurate then isn't there a chance this could hit us. If NASA or any other space agency found out this was going to hit they wouldn't tell us about it.

Recently there have been loads of asteroid missions, and scientists are tryin to figure out how to divert one... I wonder why.

[EDIT] nvm... was looking at it wrong..

[edit on 3-3-2006 by Produkt]

ya of course they would. Was just posting some info on a clos approach is all.

0.020 AU

AU = Distance from earth to sun.
So my previous math was off.
(thank goodness! )

[edit on 3/3/2006 by FlyersFan]

Good find.

Have questions, may be dumb but here goes: Can the echoes impact the earth's magnetosphere? If so, how? Any other effects? ...I'm thinking geophysical stability here.

Thnx.

Nevermind this post. My math was off.
Disregard.

[edit on 3/3/2006 by FlyersFan]

That seems like a pretty close distance in relation to the earth. I just wonder, if a "doomsday" meteor WERE on track with the earth and it was 100% that the earth would face an impact, would NASA or the federal government warn us? Or would they just let it run it's course for fear of mass widespread chaos?

Originally posted by dbates
I still believe these calculations are give or take a few thousand miles.

Yeah, but when you are only dealing with 7,000 miles between us and
the asteroid, those 'give or take a few thousand miles' does kinda' leave
ya' a bit breathless, you know??

Yup. It is breathlessly close.

What I want to know are the potential geophysical effects of a near miss. Anyone know?

...Let's not panic, okay? We're facing a long list of cataclysmic changes and my 6th sense says this is NOT the one that will do us in.

Originally posted by soficrow
potential geophysical effects of a near miss.

www.earth.northwestern.edu...

This is as close as I can get to info. I'm doing the google
thing for asteroids, near miss's and tectonic effects, etc.

It'll take a while to read through stuff. But this is the site
I'm starting at. I imagine the size of the object matters.
How big is it anyways? Anyone??


Naaaaaaaaaaaah ... I'm still not finding anything on the
potential pull of a near miss .... I'll keep looking.



[edit on 3/3/2006 by FlyersFan]

Originally posted by FlyersFan
OKAY .. got the math done. That's 7,000 miles out from earth.
Give or take ... right??

Actually...you are going to want to "Give" alot on that math.

Lunar distance = Distance from the Earth to the Moon (384,403 Km)
1 AU = Distance from the Earth to the Sun (1 Astronomical Unit = 149,598,000 Km)

2000 PN9, at it's nearest point to earth, will be 3,036,783.7 Km (1,886,969.3 mi.)

Sorry, but it looks like all of you will still have to go in to work on Monday!

just a little reminder, 0.02 AU is about 3,000,000 km wich is allso about 7.9 times the distance to the moon. So, it will be passing at about 3,000,000 km or 1,850,000 miles (more or less), and not 7700 km. Any way, I'm not worried

Originally posted by antipigopolist
1 AU = Distance from the Earth to the Sun

Ohhhhhhhhh! I had AU as distance from Earth to Moon.
Major difference. I'm breathing again!

This is really not very big news, since countless asteriods pass within 7 LD on a regular basis.

Indeed many would be surprised that asteriod 2006 DD1 passed within .3 Lunar Distance on Feb 23. this is 115, 200 KM! a close brush but by no means a threat.

Actually 2004 VD17 poses the biggest threat to earth now as it is the only
asteriod classified a 2 on the Torino scale.

Originally posted by TheHorseChestnut
Actually 2004 VD17 poses the biggest threat to earth now as it is the only
asteriod classified a 2 on the Torino scale.

Hmmm, checking that one out, it does come mighty close.......even if it is May 3, 2032.

neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

Hmmm, links not working, you can paste "2004 VD17" into the "Object Number, Designation, or Name" queery at the bottom of the page here though.
neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

Then advance to May 3, 2032.

[edit on 3/3/06 by redmage]

In the event such a large asteroid or comet was on a collision course with the earth, its doubtful NASA or the government would say anything.

Because quite frankly, how are they going to help anybody after the Katrina debacle. And thats nothing compared to a possible extinction event impact.

Anybody with power who would be entitled to know, would be quietly making tracks to the safest part of the planet they could make it to.

Hopefully, someone would get the word out to the masses. But would they believe him or her if the government would not concur?
I know people on ATS who would debate the topic tooth and nail on 5 different threads 50 posts deep, even as the asteroid penetrated the atmosphere.

So really, why even bother saying anything? If you life is all squared up and your ducks are in a row, you don't need to know because your peace has already been made.