Asteroid Nearing Earth on January 29, 2008

Asteroid Nearing Earth on January 29, 2008

www.tu24.org

NASA's tracking telescope in Goldstone, Ca., makes its upcoming schedule available online.

On this schedule last updated Jan 2nd is asteroid 2007 TU24, headed towards Earth on January 29th, 2008, which NASA marks as an "Extremely strong target." [emphasis theirs]

You will also note that it is marked as needing astrometry. (Astrometry is the branch of astronomy that relates to precise measurements and explanations of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies, according to Wikipedia.) Yet, in the one article I've read about TU24 "scientists" claim there is 0 probability of impact with Earth. With no explanation as to why there is 0 probability, it sounds more like wishful thinking.

(visit the link for the full news article)

If you go to the link there is a short video that show the possible orbit of TU24. Per the video, TU24 is about the size of the Sears Tower. Current projections show the asteroid will pass within .0012 AU of Earth.

www.tu24.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Current projections show that the asteroid will in fact pass as close as .00098AU.


cfa-www.harvard.edu...





edit to fix link.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by smartie]

reply to post by monkdds4



Please bear with me as I'm a complete homer when it comes to this sorta thing
but I have a couple questions:

1.) Any idea of the optimum viewing area for this thing when it nears or is it too soon to tell?

2.) How possible is it that after Astrometry that this will be close enough that we may have to call Ben Affleck?

Originally posted by smartie
Current projections show that the asteroid will in fact pass as close as .00098AU.


cfa-www.harvard.edu...

edit to fix link.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by smartie]

Which is like only 91,000 miles. Well inside the orbit of the moon.

reply to post by centurion1211


Holy Mackerel!

What's the margin of error in those calculations and should we expect any weather changes and/or interference with our satellites?

reply to post by centurion1211


Lets hope we get good pictures of it. A once in a lifetime near death experience by an asteroid.

reply to post by monkdds4


hopefully it hits and we all get wiped out
the Asteroid would just speed up the proccess of man killing its self out

or is that very unlikely?

Closer still will be: Apophis due to arrive April 2029 it will pass as close as 0.0002318 AU

cfa-www.harvard.edu...



edit to add link

[edit on 15-1-2008 by smartie]

[edit on 15-1-2008 by smartie]

[edit on 15-1-2008 by smartie]

That's pretty close - in space terms.

It got me wondering if I could throw a beer bottle with enough force and at a specific point in it orbit would it be possible to change the trajectory and put it on a collision course with us?? There has got to be plenty of beer bottle sized objects hurtling around out there with tremendous speed - I picked a beer bottle cos guess what I'm drinking? - but a monitor sized object, or even a motorcycle sized object must be almost imposable to track. Maybe its time to kiss ones bottom farewell!

reply to post by centurion1211


I'm not great at those calculations either but I'm sure somewhere someone knows this information. Hopefully someone will post the info if they know it. The TU24.org site will likely have the info as soon as anyone.

As far as Ben Affleck coming to the rescue I don't know, I'm more of a Bruce Willis fan.

Just for info:

For comparison, the mean distance of the moon is 0.0026 AU = 384400 km = 238900 miles.

1 AU is approximately the mean distance of the earth from the sun = 149597870 km = 92955810 miles.


So it will pass as close as approx. 20,000 miles. give or take a few.



[edit on 15-1-2008 by smartie]

I'm sure it is way too late for anyone to come to the rescue if the January asteroid were going to hit us. Plus, they've found out that many of these asteriods are not solid bodies, but kind of like piles of huge boulders and dust held together by mutual gravity so that they appear to be one object to us. So, if we tried the "nuclear option" on one of those, it would have the effect of turning a single bullet into a mass of shotgun pellets hitting the earth.

Don't think we'd enjoy that very much either ...

[edit on 1/15/2008 by centurion1211]

Wow, cool..

As much as I'd like it to bring a complete change to the way we do things here on lil' old Earth, 20,000 miles is still quite a distance.

But wether it hits or not, it's going to be one awesome sight to see.

I'll be keeping a close eye on this as this really interests me...

Bring it on....

Can we see this object with the naked eye? Seems like if it is that close we should be able to see it.

That is a projected distance for 2029, plenty of time for an alternate trajectory to be calculated either way. So it could be a near miss or worse who knows? As you say we should be able to see it as it will be well within the Moon’s orbit.

According to NASA JPL NEO site, TU24 will be 0.0045 AU on Jan. 29th. and get no closer than 1.4 LU. That is close to be sure, but not as close as was stated earlier. We always have close approaches like this, in fact there was AF3 that was 1.0 LU two days ago. It is a small object, but it goes to show this is a common occurrence.

JPL Orbital simulator for TU24
JPL NEO website

Sweet dreams.