Surprise Asteroid Fly-by

Surprise Asteroid Fly-by

www.space.com

Recently discovered bus-sized asteroid 2012 BX34 will come closer to Earth than the Moon (36,750 miles away to be exact) on January 27th, 2012. See the orbit the space rock has and will take from January 10th to February 15th.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Seems this one will pass pretty close dont know how close the others were but it says that it will be closer to the earth than the moon.

I am not fear mongering just saying this is a pretty good chance for some sky gazers to get a good look,and the fact that it came from out of nowhere.

Anyone care to comment on this or give some idea if it will be visible to the naked eye

www.space.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow now you find some Trumpet sounds too go with that over a large area,, lol,,
ya it's getting harder and harder,, lol

reply to post by BobAthome


So would you know if it will be visible to the naked eye and about what time

Originally posted by alchemist2012
reply to post by BobAthome

 

So would you know if it will be visible to the naked eye and about what time

It won't be visable the naked eye.

There is some info about what time here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yup even NASA NEO doesn't have it listed

neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

Expect many more surprises... seems incoming space rocks are now SECRET

Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified | Space.com
www.space.com...

Guess they don't want any more Doom and Gloom scares

Originally posted by zorgon

Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified | Space.com
www.space.com...

Guess they don't want any more Doom and Gloom scares

edit on 26-1-2012 by zorgon because: (no reason given)

Isnt that for "fireballs" in the atmosphere not so much long range 1st detections

[color=dodgerblue]It's listed on JPL's small body database.

It was only discovered in the last few days. The data-arc span is only two days with a condition code of 6(0 being good and 9 being highly uncertain), meaning that they can't be a hundred percent certain of its trajectory.

But..

It's little (7.9m-18m) and poses no threat.

I don't think that it was being kept a secret as some are suggesting. It just snuck up on us.

Linky

How can they tell whether it's not artificial? Do they know what it's properties are?

Originally posted by DanielET
How can they tell whether it's not artificial? Do they know what it's properties are?

right, bus sized object heading crazily close to earth, but lets not start the fear mongering here, if it hits it hits, oh well

[color=dodgerblue]Its extremely close in cosmic terms......

but will still pass at a distance of 59,839.2 kilometers.

Originally posted by DanielET
How can they tell whether it's not artificial? Do they know what it's properties are?

It's just a rock... then again perhaps it's a huge silicon boob implant... what do you think?

IRM

Originally posted by daryllyn
[color=dodgerblue]
I don't think that it was being kept a secret as some are suggesting. It just snuck up on us.

Well if the satellite data wasn't classified now, maybe it couldn't have snuck up on us

Or they could be doing like von Braun sadi as Enemy # 3 Asteroids so they can hit us up for more money to put more junk in space to spot them...

Either that or they are just getting sloppy

Originally posted by daryllyn
[color=dodgerblue]Its extremely close in cosmic terms......

but will still pass at a distance of 59,839.2 kilometers.

Do you think, they have some sort of gravitational pull ??
59,839.2 kilometers is far away, but still close at the same time to potentially cause a disruption...

reply to post by 98yekiM


[color=dodgerblue]It's too small to cause any kind of gravitational pull on us.

7.9m-18m is the estimated size of the rock.

Seriously. Its going to be fine.

Rather than being a cover up, at approximately 18 meters this one is far too small to be detected until it's on top of us.

Back in October 2011 NEOWISE a survey with NASA’s orbiting Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) reported that they had accounted for an estimated 93% of asteroids larger than 1 kilometer orbiting the Sun within 195 million kilometres of Earth’s orbit and that none of those found posed a danger.

Astronomy Now Article
Astronomy Now

The Original NEOWISE Report
NEOWISE

So I guess they're starting with the big ones and will work their way down in size. However, the technology doesn't exist to spot the really small ones.

reply to post by zorgon

Well if the satellite data wasn't classified now, maybe it couldn't have snuck up on us Or they could be doing like von Braun sadi as Enemy # 3 Asteroids so they can hit us up for more money to put more junk in space to spot them... Either that or they are just getting sloppy

[color=dodgerblue]I actually went to bed. And something dawned on me. And I had to get up to come reply to your post!

We are talking about two different things here.

The data you are referring to comes from satellites. The first quote is from your source.

For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere – but no longer.

[color=dodgerblue]
The data I am referring to comes from observatories around the world.

Responding effectively to hazards posed by near-Earth objects (NEOs) requires the joint efforts of diverse institutions and individuals.

At the national level in the United States, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, sponsored by the International Astronomical Union but funded about 90 percent by NASA, collects observations of all asteroids and comets made around the world. The MPC archives these observations, makes them publicly available, and computes orbits for all individual, identified objects. For any object that seems to pose a threat to Earth, the MPC director or designee has a reporting system to alert a NASA official and thence through specified government channels to alert the country at large.

Also in the United States, individual observers and observatories are dedicated in whole or in part to discovering and observing NEOs. Further, NASA supports a group of researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that carries out accurate, long-term predictions of asteroid orbits, quantifies threats, and notifies NASA, as does the MPC, if a “threshold” is exceeded.

[color=dodgerblue]Two completely different things here, Sir.

Linky

Originally posted by Insomniac
So I guess they're starting with the big ones and will work their way down in size. However, the technology doesn't exist to spot the really small ones.

If the technology doesn't exist to spot the really small ones (this one being the size of a bus) how come NORAD can track every piece of space debris out there larger than 10 centimeters?

Just asking

no body is asking where the moon is in relation to the rock....wow!!! poor old moon, it gets no respect

Originally posted by zorgon

Originally posted by Insomniac
So I guess they're starting with the big ones and will work their way down in size. However, the technology doesn't exist to spot the really small ones.

If the technology doesn't exist to spot the really small ones (this one being the size of a bus) how come NORAD can track every piece of space debris out there larger than 10 centimeters?

Just asking

Because space debris is in orbit around the Earth. Asteroids extend out nearly as far as Jupiter. There really is no comparison.