Surprise Asteroid Makes Near-Miss of Earth

reply to post by prevenge


Risk doesn't actually have much to do with obtaining flood insurance but it may depend on your community.

Anyone can get flooded, and anyone can get flood insurance. Even if you have been flooded before, live in a flood zone, or if your flood risk is high, medium, or low, you can purchase flood insurance if your community participates in the NFIP. In order to participate, the community must adopt and enforce local floodplain management ordinances designed to reduce the risk of future flood losses. Check with your local officials to see if your community participates in the NFIP, or call the NFIP toll-free hotline, 1-800-427-4661.

www.fema.gov...

Not OT because...ummm... a big asteroid can make it rain a lot and cause floods....yeah, that's the ticket.

Sounds like another long term taxing rational like giant air purifiers. Long live the debt slaves.

Asteroids that size in theory given the amount of the Earth actually covered by human population could hit and we might not even notice beyond a few military watchers etc, etc... depends where it lands

A small Nuclear explosion? in the middle of the Pacific,
I dunno it would make the News, probably could screw up a city pretty bad but the odds of it hitting a major city are slim to ridiculously slim

There is something about this story that at an internal level is raising red flags. Something about this does not make sense to me. I wish I could put my finger on it but I can't.

The dots do not connect for me on this story.

I will be doing my morning meditation soon so I will reflect on it then.

Still interesting nonetheless.

Originally posted by thedangler
Near-hit.
it nearly hit me.

it nearly missed me. Means it hit me but barely.


i still dont know why ppl say near miss.

A George Carlin fan I presume

2nd line.

reply to post by Asmus


LOL, that's because the secret weapon will be to drop a rock on our biggest enemy so no one is to blame when the time comes...

Of course it doesn't make sense... we are all warned of Asteroids all the time when the odds of one hitting in the next 1,000 years even as even a Nation, let alone world ending event are incredibly remote

When the Rock drops, we will have dropped it

Originally posted by crsb123
www.foxnews.com...
not very reassuring when you consider humanity had only about three days' notice."

What do you mean "3 days notice"? This is the first I have heard of it!!!!

If it did hit, would it have been in the paper or on the news??? GEEZZZ!!!

if this is the one that almost hit us yesterday, then we are pretty lucky. from what i understand it was compareable to the one that hit siberia in the early 1900's that one devestated an area of about 800 miles so if it hit the u.s. it would definately have messed up many peoples daily routine. so ive spent the day just celebrateing being alive and things going on as normal.
and makeing people think im nuts in the process. but hey we dodged another one! so get out there and celebrate people!

[edit on 3-3-2009 by lunchbox1979]

Originally posted by Oolon

What do you mean "3 days notice"? This is the first I have heard of it!!!!

If it did hit, would it have been in the paper or on the news??? GEEZZZ!!!

Here are all the current risks:
neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

They call it a near miss to let you know it was close... a distant miss you needn't be worried about.

I've heard that 30 meters is the critical size above which an asteroid is likely to impact. But this can vary somewhat, depending on its composition, speed and angle of descent. Clearly an icy asteroid would heat and boil off more easily. But it wouldn't matter too much where a big one hit. Tsunamiis and stuff. The airburst in Siberia was much worse than if it had impacted, I've heard.

The satellites that are intended to de-orbit are designed to burn up as totally as possible. The items which have survived re-entry have been mostly heavy items, such as spherical fuel tanks. The thin walls of a Progress should totally vaporize. And there is a designated area of ocean for satellites to re-enter in. One with no shipping routes under it.

There is a hierarchy of astronomers and observatories that are notified when there is a sighting... for additional observations and analyses. Any reporter can decide which are newsworth. And where to report it. But they can't force you to read about it. In this case, it was reported in the Australian papers because an Australian observer saw it first.

Originally posted by ngchunter
Here are all the current risks:
neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

That we know about...

It's been estimated that we only know a small fraction of the potentially dangerous objects. Finding all of them is going to be our priority now.

I've been keeping tabs on the numbers discovered, and so far this year it's 30+. That number will start to skyrocket soon as more and more resources are put into the effort I would predict. Last time I looked it was known 1033 PHOs.

reply to post by Phage


The greatest risk of loosing sats is when they are launched - that I think is the main reason that they are un-insurable.

I wonder if the insurance companies might start offering collision risk policies now

well thats just great. ANOTHER d@mned rock to hit texas. dern kids!

reply to post by Oolon


There will nbe no News stories about such things to the general populace for one main reason, PANIC. If it were broadcast that an asteroid was headed for Earth, wether or not we were able to do anything about it, the general populace would freak out. You would have riots all over the place, you think the stock market is bad now . . . . . Anouncing later that it missed us has less of a dramatic effect, other than "Whew that was close", type of effect.

There may be other reasons, but this would be the number one reason in my book.


[edit on 3/4/2009 by AlienCarnage]

Originally posted by salsaking

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
Have any of you considered the possibility that we have never gone to the moon? We have the hubble telescope that can see millions of miles and yet has never looked at the moon to show us the flag left there or the lunar modules?
NASA claims that we have lost the technology to go to the moon?

What do you think?

Personally I dont even believe the moons exists. However I do believe we have landed on it.

Here's a question though: whats the size threshold of an asteroid for it to burn up in our atmosphere or not? I guess it depends on the angle and speed as well, but if it were the size of a car is that too much for out atmosphere to burn up?

Also, what happens to the "stuff" that does burn up? If its all iron then does it melt to liquid and then to a gas? If so that is pretty amazing that a large rock can be completely turned into gas that quickly!

Why dont you think the moon exists? And how could we land on it if it doesnt? I know a girl that doesnt think space exists.

Here's the thing about not so big rocks "floating" around in space. Not true. The rocks are actualy moving at very high speeds. This comes into play alot when friction and atmospheres are involved, but there is so much more about these rocks that need to be addressed.

First: What is the composition of said rock? Is it mostly iron, sulfur, ice? In other words, what is the magnetic field's strength and characteristics? What (if any) atmosphere does the rock have? Probably that last question would only involve larger "rocks", but I digest...

Second: What is the speed and trajectory of the rock? What are it's ballistic characteristics? Is it spinning, tubling? How much and to what degree of predictability? This is important for determining many important facts/hypothesis involving the rock including: When, and where the rock will be (including impact, if any) at any time during it's near proximity with Earth. Also, this information would allow us to calculate the orbit, and period of that orbit, if any. Obviously that would be important to Earth's future.

Basic physics here folks. An object weighing in at a mere 100,000 pounds, perhaps no larger than a tractor trailer- striking the Earth at terminal velocity packs a LOT of kinetic energy. The blast will be the instant release of that energy, and it would be massive. Even if something of relatively small size of a high density (here's where composition factors in to a degree) were to hit a relatively unpopulated region of any ocean, there is a likely tsunami danger. An impact on land, especially in or near densly populated areas would be catastrophic, on the order of a nuclear blast, sans fallout. Well, that's not quite true... depending on the composition of the impact site, the projectile...etc!

There are soooooo many variables when it comes to NEO's, and it's a wonder we don't get hit more often with larger rocks!

Did "we" really only have three days to prepare for possible impact? This thread is the first I have read/heard any news about this object.

The moral of the story: This is a relatively common incident. The global news access the internet provides is making it more common to read/hear about, neh?
Just thank God or whoever you believe in that Earth hasn't been hit lately with anything sizable.

[edit on 4/3/09 by cbianchi513]

reply to post by ryckE


Sarcasm obviosly does not go over well in written text.
His comments were obviosly were attempt to poke fun at an Anon poster that was interupting the thread with a junk post.

Originally posted by cbianchi513
Is it spinning, tubling? How much and to what degree of predictability? This is important for determining many important facts/hypothesis involving the rock including: When, and where the rock will be (including impact, if any) at any time during it's near proximity with Earth. Also, this information would allow us to calculate the orbit, and period of that orbit, if any. Obviously that would be important to Earth's future.

Good post, and lots of good info, but the above is wrong:

Spinning or tumbling makes little or no difference (since there is no air resistance in space) - all that matters is the orbit, and that is independent of the spinning/tumbling.