Another Asteroid Passes close to Earth

Asteroid orbit path comes close to Earth, left of center.

2013 continues to be the Year of the Asteroid Menace. Today a recently-discovered asteroid, 2013 LR6, will approach the Earth's orbit today and pass close by tomorrow. The 50 foot-wide rock will come closer than does the Moon, at about 68,000 miles (the Moon is at about 240,000 miles). That's close in NEO terms (Near Earth Objects). 

Yahoo News has a good article explaining more about this event and a link to watch the approach LIVE: http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-fly-within-moons-orbit-tomorrow-watch-live-153153909.html

From the SpaceRubble Command Bunker: We often hear that scientists have discovered such-and-such percent of the asteroids that could hit us. Yet rocks such as this one, the recent big one and the Chelyabinsk meteor hit prove that it's the ones you don't see coming that are the true danger to the Earth. And if they aren't seeing all of them, then we really don't have a number we can pin a percentage on, we only have a Wild-a** guess to go on, 'cause who in the heck knows everything that's out there in space!

Here comes another one!

It's Duck and Cover time!

While most of us were sleeping, a chunk of rock about 20 meters across zipped by Earth on its way around the Solar System. The asteroid, designated 2012 TC4 was estimated to pass by our planet rather close, at about 1/4 the distance from the Earth to the Moon, or about 96,000 kilometers (about 59,000 miles).

Time-elapsed picture of 2012 TC4. Picture by Remanzacco Observatory.

For more comet and asteroid updates, check the blog of the Associazionie Friulana di Astronomia e Meteorologia: http://remanzacco.blogspot.it/2012/10/close-approach-of-asteroid-2012-tc4.html.

Notes from the Command Bunker: This NEO, or Near Earth Object, demonstrates the need we have for continued research of Earth-orbit-crossing-asteroids. It was only discovered on October 7! What if we had also discovered that it was on a collision course with a major city? Write to your member of the House of Representatives and urge them to demand that Congress and NASA allocate more funding for discovery and analysis of NEO's. 

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...

Close Calls

Whew! That was close!

Looks like Earth narrowly avoided tragedy this week as a rocky chunk squeeked by our planet. Supposedly about 35 meters in diameter,  it passed over the Pacific at its closest encounter. Apparently astronomers only detected this beastie only 3 days before its passage. Some scientists have claimed this was the size of the object that detonated above Siberia in 1908 causing massive devastation to the Tunguska forest. Speculation that, I say, as we have no evidence of what that was... Needless to say, though, (and I'll say it!) if this thing HAD hit a populated area there could have been terrific destruction.  I''ll pass. Oh wait, it did... ; )

NOW I've checked spaceweather.com and it seems another rock goes by the Earth tomorrow (Mar. 6th)! Smaller, this one, at about 25 meters. Farther away, too. it will pass by at about 0.9 Lunar distance (lunar distance = 240,000 miles). Still, that's pretty close as far as NEO's go (Near Earth Object).

Somebody out there got closer with their aim...