Here Comes A BIG One!

Radar image of 2005 YU55.

It's time for watching the skies again, as a large asteroid passes pretty close to the Earth. Asteroid 2005 YU55 is expected to zoom past our planet at about 4:28 p.m. Mountain Time this afternoon. By Pretty Close I mean Pretty Close. Many close calls are actually several times the distance between the Earth and Moon, but this one will actually come closer to Earth than the Moon does!

Scientists have been closely tracking this asteroid with radar-imaging telescopes to precisely verify its trajectory and speed. We should be quite safe, as its orbit around the Sun has already been established. This gives researchers a chance to observe a close up asteroid and learn more about the dangers that could be posed to the Earth by these close misses.

You see, this isn't some little po-dunk bus-sized little rock, this one is as big as an aircraft carrier! Yes, it would survive going through the atmosphere and smack us good, but it looks like it will miss (phew!)

The last time a rock this size passed this close to the Earth (about 200,000 miles away) was in 1976. That pass by was undetected until scientists caught it going away (lucky us). The next approach of an object this big won't be until about 2028.

2005 YU55 will continue on past us and continue circling the Sun, passing by the Earth, Venus and Mars.

Down here in the Bunker we are glad that our scientists will get such a close opportunity to study and analyze the enemy's weapons. Should this have hit the Earth, the damage would have been quite appreciable, creating a crater larger than that found at Meteor Crater in Arizona. Celebrate the Near-Miss with a toast to the Near-Earth-Observations Program at JPL and NASA. The more we learn about these objects, the safer we can be in the War against the Comet Empire and their Allies, the Asteroids.

Playing Dodgeball in Space

Comet Elenin fading. Credit: Michael Mattiazzo

While we wait for the eventual demise of German satellite ROSSAT between the 20th and the 23rd, Earth managed to avoid destruction from the "Doomsday Comet." According to some conspiracy theorists, Comet Elenin was expected to hit the Earth on Sunday the 16th. Well, it must not have been too many conspiracy theorists, because not even I had heard of this one.

Apparently, some of the conspirators believed that the name of the comet, Elenin, was code for ELE, or Extinction Level Event. This ties into something called the Nibiru or Planet X collision. Believers fear that a large planetary body or comet not currently known by astronomers (but known to the ancient astronomers) will come barreling out of the dark and collide with the Earth, or make a near miss, enough to cause tremendous geological damage and threaten the human species.

In actuality, Comet Elenin was discovered in December 2010 by Russian amateur Leonid Elenin. Already very faint, it was estimated to be a long-period comet of only a diameter of about 3-4 kilometers. After a large solar storm in August, the comet was seen to be breaking up and growing much fainter. As it swept around the Sun on September, the break up was figured to be complete and only a cloud of cometary debris was noted. See the top photo for a reduction in brightness.

So, on last Sunday, the remaining debris swept pass the Earth. Only it wasn't even close. It passed by at about the same distance as from Earth to Venus. Here in the SpaceRubble Bunker we didn't even notice.

And yet, I should make note that on my drive home from SLC Saturday night, I witnessed a small fireball meteor descending westward apparently over the Oquirr mountains. Curious timing, that...

Run! Another satellite is falling!

credit: EPA/Barbara Walton

Well, don't panic just yet.

It is true, however, that another satellite is out of control and exepcted to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on October 22nd or 23rd. This time it's the German satellite ROSAT, which was originally launched into space in 1990. This time, though, the scientists have less assurance about where and when it might come down.

ROSAT satellite, artist concept. Credit: German Aerospace Center.

Scientists suspect that quite a bit of this object may survive the fall, so the debris might weigh as much as a ton and a half! They have calculated the odds of a person on Earth being struck by ROSAT debris as 1-in-2000. This is a significantly higher risk than we faced from the falling NASA satellite. Still, the odds that YOU are the one who will be hit are incredibly low. Still, better safe than sorry. Carry a camera with you this week and be ready to take pictures of any crash site, wreckage, or havoc. I'll be hiding safely in the Spacerubble Command Bunker, anxiously awaiting word of calamity. Or, I might just do something useful like plot the destruction of evil alien TellyTubbies (have you SEEN them?).

Warning: Do not take this seriously. While the facts in the article may be correct, there is no cause for alarm unless you are actually struck by debris. Remember that debris from the satellite will not be hot, it will cool by the time it may hit you, but it's the weight of some debris that might squish you tragically. The tone of this article is created for entertainment and in no way represents the opinion of anyone of note. If you are alarmed by the warning nature of this post, please calm down and stop watching the news, disaster movies, or listening to conspiracy theorists. If you ARE hit by debris, wow. Nice knowin' ya.

UARS Satellite Coming Down!

HEADS DOWN!

It's Duck-and-Cover time, folks, as a big piece of space junk is headed our way and just may hit someone! Sure, the chances of it hitting YOU in particular are about 1 in a trillion, but hey, you're on the planet, aintcha?

UARS in orbit.

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected now to re-enter the atmosphere sometime late Friday the 23rd or early Saturday the 24th. As the trajectory becomes more clear, it seems that we Americans may be in it's probable fall zone. That zone could be an estimated 500 miles long.

UARS has had a good life, performing its research since 1991 in orbit of the Earth. It's a big boy, though, about 6.5 tons and the size of a school bus (why are things always related to the size of a bus or Rhode Island?) and it won't all burn up during re-entry. Scientists have estimated that about 26 pieces will survive to land on the ground. The fall through the atmosphere will cool the pieces so it shouldn't be hot when it lands. However, there are some coolants and reactants that could be harmful to human flesh so if you should find a piece, don't touch it(!) but rather notify local police and take lots of awesome pictures.

Jupiter's Wound spied by Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope, newly repaired and upgraded during shuttle mission STS-125, has begun more of its amazing work. With the discovery of a major impact on Jupiter just a few days ago, astronomers are using the Hubble to view the damage caused by the strike. The left view of Jupiter shows the location of the debris cloud on the visible disk of Jupiter, while the right view is a close-up.

Astronomers will soon be able to estimate the correct size of the impactor and the energy created during the explosion. The Hubble telescope was in the middle of calibration tests for the newly installed equipment. With he urgency of this discovery, astronomers decided to interrupt their schedule and test the new equipment on the Jupiter event. This test proved that the equipment was successfully installed and will provide Hubble with great tools for its important work.

Jupiter Takes A Big Hit!

Congradulations, those of you who missed the big show with comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 back in 1994 have a second chance to witness in your lifetime a major impact event in our solar system! JPL/NASA has confirmed that either an asteroid or comet has slammed into the atmosphere of Jupiter, causing a tremendous detonation and creating a black destructive area the size of our Earth.

Amateur astronomers take heart: this discovery was not made by Hubble, professional observatories nor robotic sentinels of the skies. This discovery was made by Anthony Wesley, of Australia, who was merely observing Jupiter with his own scope. With the sharp-thinking alert from Wesley, scientists on Earth facing Jupiter immediately turned our Hawaiian telescopes toward Jupiter to confirm and study the event.

We'll be watching this event closely as further information comes our way.