Asteroid Misses Earth

This happens from time to time, a newly discovered asteroid that passes between us and the moon. We have another one coming up in February, a 50m rock that is supposed to be .09 LDs away. I've been watching close approaches on spaceweather.com and this is by far the closest I have ever seen.

reply to post by December21st2012


It was discovered 3 years ago and just passed us. It will be back in 7 years only will likely hit us. I think i read where they are working on ways to deflect it. They said the number of people working on the problem is about 1/5th the number of people that work at Mcdonalds lol. no idea why they used that. The system they will likely use is a large rocket to meet it a million miles out and use the gravity of the rocket to alter its course.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe NASA has said they have a very good handle on near-Earth objects - and yet SURPRISE! Only 2 days notice... if it hit would they even bother giving us advanced notice?

reply to post by December21st2012


Thanks for responding. My only point was that the asteroid came within 48,000 miles of the earth. In scientfic circles that close enough to classified as a 'near-miss' and that no reports that this was going to happen. (meaning no reports when it happened on Dec. 10th or prior, like a week)

I now realize it was identified back in 2009.

However: "The asteroid was only spotted two days ago ..." as stated in the article, and it wasn't reported on until "after" it had passed. Just thought there would have been more warning, and the lack of it, (this time) just seemed surprising to me.

Originally posted by Jason88
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe NASA has said they have a very good handle on near-Earth objects - and yet SURPRISE! Only 2 days notice... if it hit would they even bother giving us advanced notice?

Jason88. Exactly. That was the purpose of me posting. I found the 'surprise' part, after the fact, the most fascinating thing.

I am not trying to make this into a big story. It was just that when I read the article and heard more about the story, I felt it was noteworthy and felt it strange nothing was said the 'day of' or a warning a few days or even weeks earlier. That was my point.

Over on Wired.com they have some nice photos of the asteroid.

Toutatis is a long, irregularly shaped object that swings by Earth about once every four years, usually coming within a few million miles of our planet. The asteroid is officially classified as “potentially hazardous” but has very little chance of actually hitting the Earth. Astronomers have calculated that its odds of crashing into our planet over the next 600 years are effectively zero. This year’s pass brought Toutatis within about 3.7 million miles of Earth, roughly 15 times the Earth-moon distance, though the next flyby, in late 2016, will be at a more comfortable 23 million miles. The asteroid won’t get close again until 2069, when it be around 1.8 million miles from Earth.

Photos & story: www.wired.com...

This is the same asteroid, right?

reply to post by ItDepends

I watched a documentary on it just last night. The news media will not cover such things because they assume panic will ensue. You have to watch scientific documentaries to keep up with whats happening in the universe.

reply to post by ItDepends


I've known for years that we would have little to no notice of anything hitting. We have surveyed a fraction of the skies over our heads, and have found a tiny portion of what's in them.

reply to post by ItDepends


I'm trying to figure out if we knew about this asteroid as is described in the Wired story: "It comes around every four years." Or if this is something new with only 2 days notice - meaning, everyone was looking at the known asteroid, then a surprise one showed up even closer while they weren't looking in that direction.

Not sure - is this new? If so, you do have a story.

EDIT: As others, better versed in this thread have said, it's been known about for three years (hence its name: 2009 DD 214): en.wikipedia.org... and ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...

That article you sourced is no good.

reply to post by Jason88


It comes around every 7 years, not 4 and it has been covered 1000 times on television, just not news channels. It has been discussed literally for years.

reply to post by Jason88


Thanks, but no. The one you have there: "This year’s pass brought Toutatis within about 3.7 million miles of Earth," That's called Toutatis.

The one I posted came with in 48,000 miles of the earth and is called 2009 DD45.

Oh I see what you mean, so it was discovered 3 years ago, but nearly hit us yesterday. Doesnt this sort of thing normally generate a lot more interest on its approach? I remember the one last year, everyone was talking about it for weeks before it passed.

The article is over two years old.

The asteroid made another approach back in October of this year. This link takes you to Nasa's near approach page for asteroid 2009 DD45.

If there was another near-miss, it wasn't from the asteroid mentioned in the article that the OP linked to.

reply to post by Jason88


As far as I can ascertain (maybe someone else has better information), this asteroid 2009 DD45, was first noticed back in 2009. Hence its designation 2009 DD45.

However it appears what was true back then, in 2009, and what just happened, on Monday Dec.10, 2012, was that 2009 DD45 was only noticed this around 'after' it passed so close. Just felt it was strange that nothing was said prior that's all.

Originally posted by ItDepends


I just found it amazing!!! NOT the title of the article........

BUT...............

"The asteroid was only spotted two days ago ......"

Only 2 days ago??? That tells me that almost anything could be headed our (Earth) and we may have 2 days or less to be prepared. Is this surprising to you as much as it is to me?



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

The article you linked to was published in 2009 and the asteroid was designated as a 2009 discovery. However you were right about the recent miss by a rock we found only a short time ago, you just linked to the wrong article.

SOURCE

Asteroid 2012 XE54 was only recently discovered, and will safely pass between the Earth and the Moon’s orbit at a distance of about 226,000 km (141,000 miles) or about .6 lunar distances.

edit on 12-12-2012 by happykat39 because: correction

So it was a new one that nearly hit us then? What would have happened if it had? was it big enough to impact?

reply to post by ItDepends


Gotcha. It is surprising that no MSM picked up the story - at least for the science minded audience.

Also agree with other posters; they wouldn't tell us if we were going to hit, doesn't make any sense to.

Originally posted by December21st2012
So it was a new one that nearly hit us then? What would have happened if it had? was it big enough to impact?

It was only 28 meters wide. Not enough to do major damage like the Tunguska event but it could, depending on it's composition, do some serious local damage if it were to hit.

reply to post by happykat39


Right ^.

I think I see where the confusion is coming from. The sourced article is all mixed up. Yes, there is a new asteroid discovered it is 2012 XE54. The author of the sourced article wrote about a known asteroid, 2009 DD 45, but mixed it up with 2012 XE54. And it seems it is new because a larger asteroid, Toutatis, is next to it so this was harder to see in the shadow of a larger body. Anyways, that's too many asteroids in the news for my liking.

As observed from the asteroid 2012 XE54, which alongside a long-studied giant space rock named Toutatis will pass close to Earth later today.

Your source. ^

reply to post by NiteNGale2


Thanks NiteNGale2. I was wrong. I identified the wrong Asteroid, it was not 2009 DD45, that just passed. It was another Asteroid called 2012 XE54, that came within 140,000 miles of earth.

Very sorry for the initial Incorrect information.

Here is link to that. ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...