Near Earth Objects

[Deepwater6]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/tech/asteroid-near-pass/index.html?hpt=hp_t1#cnn-disqus-area

 

I didn't here anything about this one until recently. The human race needs to wake up.

[CraigD]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/tech/asteroid-near-pass/index.html?hpt=hp_t1#cnn-disqus-area

 

I didn't here anything about this one until recently. The human race needs to wake up.

Wow! 400 m diameter (vs. an estimated 17 m for this year’s Chelyabinsk, 60 to 190 m for 1908’s Tunguska events, and 10,000 m for the 66,000,000 years ago Chicxulub ELE) 2013 TV135 wasn’t discovered until 27 days after its Sep 16 closest approach to Earth of about 6,000,000 km (about 15 times Earth-Moon distance).

 

Now it’s got a 1 out of 10 Torino scale rating for a 2032 perihelion (it’s perihelion is almost exactly the same as Earth’s orbit). I wonder what it’s Torino rating would have been had it been discovered a few months earlier?

[LaurieAG]

A 570kg chunk of the Chelyabinsk meteorite was pulled out of Lake Chebarkul. That would make a nice dent if it hit something solid.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/16/chelyabinsk-meteor-russians-lake

[Deepwater6]

http://www.space.com/23273-russia-meteor-chelyabinsk-satellite-photos.html

 

Check out the vid in this article. It tracks the plume from that one in the upper atmosphere days after the strike.

[Deepwater6]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25143861

 

 

That sucks, well it coulda bin wurse. The thing could have been aimed at Earth. I guess we should be Thankful for that on this holiday. Okay, okay, another piece of pie and then it's back to sleep for me.

[Turtle]

The first asteroid of the new year and only the 2^nd asteroid ever spotted before impacting Earth.

Small asteroid 2014 AA hit the Earth's atmosphere

It is virtually certain that 2014 AA hit the Earth's atmosphere on 2014 Jan. 2.2 +/- 0.4, as demonstrated by independent calculations by Bill Gray, the MPC and Steve Chesley (JPL). According to Chesley, the impact locations are widely distributed, most likely falling on an arc extending from Central America to East Africa, with a best-fit location just off the coast of West Africa on Jan. 2.10. 2014 AA was unlikely to have survived atmospheric entry intact, as it was comparable in size to 2008 TC3, the only other example of an impacting object observed prior to atmospheric entry. ...

[Deepwater6]

http://www.space.com/24704-asteroid-2000-em26-earth-flyby-webcast.html

 

Wouldn't describe this as huge cosmically speaking as the article does, but a nice nugget never the less.

[Turtle]

http://www.space.com/24704-asteroid-2000-em26-earth-flyby-webcast.html

 

Wouldn't describe this as huge cosmically speaking as the article does, but a nice nugget never the less.

 

Schweet!! Be sure and watch it live here. There's a countdown clock on the front page. >> http://events.slooh.com/

[LaurieAG]

Just picked this one up, it will be interesting to see where the satellite comes in.

 

http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/world/russian-satellite-kosmos1220-to-hit-earth-poses-very-real-danger/story-fnj94lfw-1226828535178

[Turtle]

NEO's in the news.

 

United Nations Takes Aim at Asteroid Threat to Earth

 

As the anniversary of last year's surprise Russian meteor explosion nears, a United Nations action team is taking steps to thwart dangerous space rocks, including setting up a warning network and a planning advisory group that would coordinate a counterpunch to cosmic threats.

 

A global group of experts on near-Earth objects (NEOs) met in Vienna Feb. 10 to11 for the 51st session of the United Nations' Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Space.

...

The primary purpose of a Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) — pronounced "same page" — is to prepare for a worldwide response to a NEO threat through the exchange of information, development of options for collaborative research and mission opportunities, and to conduct NEO threat mitigation planning activities.

...

Edited May 17, 2014 by Turtle

[Turtle]

Schweet!! Be sure and watch it live here. There's a countdown clock on the front page. >> http://events.slooh.com/

Anyone else watch the Slooh webcast besides moi? It ran an hour or such a matter and met with some snags vis a vis spotting the asteroid 2000 EM26. The telescope they were going to use in the Canary Islands was snowed & frozen over so they went with some images out of Dubai. Nothing was seen then and checking today I find no one spotted it yet. It is now dubbed Moby Dick due to its elusiveness.

 

Inspite of the problems, the webcast was chocked full of good info and interviews and comments from a number of experts. Of special interest to me was Dr. Mark Boslough the expert impact physicist that I have invoked numerous times here. Good stuff!!

Read more: >>

 

'Moby Dick’ Asteroid 2000 EM26 is Missing – Help Astronomers Find It

 

Yesterday evening you may have dropped by to watch Slooh’s live coverage of asteroid 2000 EM26 as it passed just 8.8 lunar distances of Earth. Surprise – the space rock never showed up! Slooh’s robotic telescope attempted to recover the asteroid and share its speedy travels with the world but failed to capture an image at the predicted position.

Now nicknamed Moby Dick after the elusive whale in Herman Melville’s novel of the same name, the asteroid’s gone missing in the deep sea of space. Earthlings need fear no peril; it’s not headed in our direction anytime soon. Either the asteroid’s predicted path was in error or the object was much fainter than expected. More likely the former.

...

Edited May 17, 2014 by Turtle

[Deepwater6]

http://www.space.com/24968-small-asteroid-2014ec-earth-close-shave.html

 

http://www.space.com/24947-asteroid-flyby-2014ec-watch-live.html

 

They are coming in fast and furious this week. Hope it's not the leading edge of something much bigger.

[Turtle]

Another 'near' miss spotted just shortly before its closest approach this week. Also have a new resource for an open cooperative effort to devise strategies for deflecting NEO's predicted to make a direct hit on Earth.

 

Full article >> Bus-Size Asteroid Buzzes Earth, Comes Closer Than the Moon

A small asteroid about the size of a city bus zipped by Earth at a range closer than the moon early Saturday (May 3), but posed no threat to our planet.

 

The newly discovered asteroid 2014 HL129 came within 186,000 miles (299,338 kilometers) of Earth when it made its closest approach on Saturday morning, which is close enough to pass between the planet and the orbit of the moon. The average distance between the Earth and moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km).

...

Saturday's close shave by asteroid 2014 HL129 came just days after its discovery on Wednesday, April 28, by astronomers with the Mt. Lemmon Survey team, according to an alert by the Minor Planet Center, an arm of the International Astronomical Union that chronicles asteroid discoveries. The Mt. Lemmon Survey team scans the night sky with a telescope at the Steward Observatory atop Mt. Lemmon in Arizona's Catalina Mountains. ...

Main page >> NASA's Asteroid Grand Challenge wiki

To help educate people around the globe with the "101" information about asteroid hunting, NASA is sponsoring the Asteroid Grand Challenge Seminar Series throughout early 2014. These seminars will also be recorded and archived.

•Seminar Series Webcast Link: https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/nagcss/

•View Archived Seminars: [url= 9: Tim Spahr discusses the Minor Planet Center and the International Asteroid Warning Network

◦May 23: Dan Mazanek discusses NEA deflection strategies

...

[LaurieAG]

Another 'near' miss spotted just shortly before its closest approach this week. Also have a new resource for an open cooperative effort to devise strategies for deflecting NEO's predicted to make a direct hit on Earth.

 

Full article >> Bus-Size Asteroid Buzzes Earth, Comes Closer Than the Moon

Main page >> NASA's Asteroid Grand Challenge wiki

 

That's interesting Turtle. Here is the NASA Asteroid Data Hunter page and the topcoder page for the competition itself with the competitors and winners so far.

 

http://www.nasa.gov/content/be-an-asteroid-hunter-in-nasas-first-asteroid-grand-challenge-contest-series/#.U2y4bPmSya9

 

http://www.topcoder.com/asteroids/asteroiddatahunter/

 

The test data is restricted to the Catalina Sky Survey photometric Data set. http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/DataRelease/

 

FAQ of the Data Release is here. http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/DataRelease/FAQ2.html

 

Catalina Photometry Database Schemas are here. http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/DataRelease/schema.html

 

Here's a brief summary of the available data.

 

MasterFrame - Contains all frame centers and limits for all 3 telescopes, CSS/MLS/SSS for the past 7 years. Each frame has a unique identifier based on date, telescope, field, scan and image no and contains frame metadata and location info.

 

MasterCat CSS/MLS/SSS - For each telescope, contains all photometry data objects and their Master ID.

 

FrameCat CSS/MLS/SSS - For each telescope, contains its subset of MasterFrame data.

 

PhotoCat CSS/MLS/SSS - For each telescope, contains all the matched photometry data objects and their details.

 

OrphanCat CSS/MLS/SSS - For each telescope, contains all the un-matched photometry data objects and their details. While all objects have Frame x & y locations CSS and SSS also have x, y and z Cartesian coordinants. 

[Eclogite]

Those interested in NEOs seem, perhaps understandably, to be focused on the orbital dynamics of the objects. While I find this aspect intriguing in a tabloid journalism sort of way I should be much more interested in what we can learn about their composition and history.

 

As a thought experiment, I wonder what it would take to rendezvous with these with a very small probe equipped to do remote analysis. We could place a number of these probes in a variety of parking orbits waiting an opportunity for dispatch. I haven't worked out the launch mass implications for such probes, but my gut feel is that this could be practical. Any thoughts.

[Turtle]

Those interested in NEOs seem, perhaps understandably, to be focused on the orbital dynamics of the objects. While I find this aspect intriguing in a tabloid journalism sort of way I should be much more interested in what we can learn about their composition and history.

 

As a thought experiment, I wonder what it would take to rendezvous with these with a very small probe equipped to do remote analysis. We could place a number of these probes in a variety of parking orbits waiting an opportunity for dispatch. I haven't worked out the launch mass implications for such probes, but my gut feel is that this could be practical. Any thoughts.

I think it's a good idea to land on an asteroid and bring back samples, and so does NASA. I'll do a little searching for a NASA article (unless someone beats me to it), but this will do for now.

 

NASA Prepares Spacecraft to Land on Asteroid for Sample Collection

 

... The mission, also known as OSIRIS-REX, has a target launch of September 2016 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The $800-million mission will direct the spacecraft to meet with asteroid 1999 RQ36, named Bennu. The spacecraft will perform mapping and surveying tasks aside from collecting rock samples. It is scheduled to come back to Earth on 2023, Reuters reports. ...

[Eclogite]

I am aware of the asteroid landing plans. But I like quantity. Take one or two samples and you may develop a false impression of what is the norm. I want these mini-probes to be numbered in the scores, or even hundreds!