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Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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An asteroid that's likely as big as several football fields will fly past Earth next week. Astronomers said the space rock will be visible the night of Jan. 29 to amateur astronomers with modest-sized telescopes.

Called 2007 TU24, the asteroid was discovered by NASA's Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 11, 2007. It is estimated to be somewhere between 500 feet to 2,000 feet in diameter.

The asteroid makes its closest approach to Earth, 334,000 miles, at 3:33 a.m. ET. For comparison, the moon is an average of 239,228 miles away.

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"This will be the closest approach by a known asteroid of this size or larger until 2027," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

However, that doesn't mean we won't hear about another flyby of this nature before then. With relatively small space rocks, like this one, astronomers sometimes don't know they're passing through until right before they do.

There is no danger of the asteroid striking Earth in the foreseeable future, the scientists said.

But if an asteroid with this size were to hit Earth, the results could be regionally devastating. The impact itself would release about 1,500 megatons of energy, creating a crater about three miles (nearly five kilometers) wide and kicking up loads of debris, according to Yeomans.

"If it hit in the ocean, which is more likely because two thirds of the Earth is ocean, it would create a tsunami, which would be devastating for the coastlines that happen to be nearby," Yeomans told SPACE.com. "It would be a huge local problem and the tsunami would be extraordinary if it hit in the ocean."

"As its closest approach is about one-and-a-half times the distance of Earth to the moon, there is no reason for concern," Yeomans said. "On the contrary, Mother Nature is providing us an excellent opportunity to perform scientific observations."

At its nearest, the asteroid will reach an approximate apparent magnitude 10.3, which is about 50 times fainter than an object visible to the naked eye in a clear, dark sky. Then, it will quickly become fainter as it moves away.

Like other asteroids, this one orbits the sun. Most do so in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA pays particular attention to those whose orbits bring them so close to Earth.

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Given the estimated number of near-Earth asteroids of this size (about 7,000 discovered and undiscovered objects), astronomers would expect an object of this size to pass this close to Earth every five years or so on average. And about every 37,000 years on average, an object this size would be expected to actually impact Earth.

Astronomers have catalogued hundreds of asteroids larger than a half-mile across that pass in the vicinity of Earth's orbit. However, none of these are known to be on a collision course with our planet.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22825661/

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

And the important bit is "The asteroid makes its closest approach to Earth, 334,000 miles, at 3:33 a.m. ET. For comparison, the moon is an average of 239,228 miles away" imho.

I'm not racist but, these asteroids come to our planet, potentially causing untold devastation, previously having wiped out all our dinosaurs - we wouldn't be allowed to do this in their part of space, oh no. They shouldn't be allowed into our orbits (he says, completely ignoring celestial mechanics).

Rant what's it coming to rave incoherent sentences with false information rant why don't they go back to their own orbits can't even fly a flag mutter mutter gibber bleeding foreign rocks don't even speak our language rant.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by foreverwar (Post 34477051)

snip

Step away from the computer. Sit down and have a sweet cup of tea. Then go back to bed. Shake if necessary.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

I wonder how many chavs we could fit on it :D Better than an ASBO ;)

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

That does seem quite close to me. Oh well.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by handyman (Post 34477073)

Step away from the computer. Sit down and have a sweet cup of tea. Then go back to bed. Shake if necessary.

Shake what ??? :D

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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I wonder how many chavs we could fit on it

Too late. According to the latest NASA pictures the asteroid has been lowered, repainted, has a blue light underneath it and a well sorted sound system in the boot. It's now expected to hit earth in the vicinity of Bracknell where scientists expect it to do doughnuts in the Sainsbury's car park.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by Jefferson T (Post 34477079)

That does seem quite close to me. Oh well.

it is, the thing that gets me is they mention the time and the distance but forget to tell us the direction its coming from.

does it come past at its closest point nearest the moon for instance, and if so is it big enough to effect the gravitational orbit of the mood even in the slightest possible way over many hundreds of years.....
something to ponder anway.

btw, i thought the latest sci facts/proofs stated that the The original asteroid that hit the earth (and perhaps made the moon) was infact the main thing that gave the earth organic matter and so kick started it and everything we are and have evolved from that point?.

perhaps the dinosaurs one was Mrs asteroid come looking for Mr asteroid after he didnt return home from his lads night out ;)

do we have to worry when ASBO youth asteroid and his mates start hanging out around here as they have nothing better to do ;)

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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the latest proofs

Hypotheses, please. Mathematics has proofs, science has hypotheses, which cannot be proved, only disproved. See creation/evolution threads ad nauseum. It's the requirement for falsifiability that separates scientific theory from beliefs.

The hypothesis in question suggests that the Moon was formed by something big hitting the Earth and knocking a chunk out of it, fairly early on. Basic Organic building blocks (carbon, mostly) would presumably have existed already, having been part of the original planetary cloud.

http://www.psi.edu/projects/moon/moon.html

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by BBKing (Post 34477093)

The chaveroid to boldly go where no chav has gone before :D

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

LOL, thanks BB i always get those wrong..., so anyway these mathematical proofs, do they say if its closest to the moon at some point will it have any slight effect, and what direction is it blooming coming from...

the reason i wonder about the moon is that its already moving away from us at a slow rate (i forget what that is right now), and at some point in the distant future it will have a massive effect on the earths climate and life, not that i expect to be around at that time OC but someone might.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by BBKing (Post 34477093)

Too late. According to the latest NASA pictures the asteroid has been lowered, repainted, has a blue light underneath it and a well sorted sound system in the boot.......

blooming heck, it looks like my first MR2!!!?????!!!!!!

which i hasten to add, I don't have anymore.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo (Post 34477121)

blooming heck, it looks like my first MR2!!!?????!!!!!!

which i hasten to add, I don't have anymore.

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It is estimated to be somewhere between 500 feet to 2,000 feet in diameter

That must have been one helluva sound system......

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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Originally Posted by foreverwar (Post 34477125)

That must have been one helluva sound system......

not as good as the megadeth one in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy though.

funny enough they have Megadeth Hoodies now, is there a 42 somewere in all this asteroid proof :shocked:

http://stylinonline.stores.yahoo.net...detheagle.html

what was the question again?.

---------- Post added at 13:32 ---------- Previous post was at 13:23 ----------

btw BB i tryed to give you a rep but it didnt let me even though its been 4 days and i reped several other people since then, is there a limit of 1 per week i wonder.

Re: Large asteroid to fly past Earth

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do they say if its closest to the moon at some point will it have any slight effect

Very slight. Remember gravity works on an inverse-square law, the strength being inversely proportional to the distance squared. In other words, gravity's strength drops off more quickly the further the objects are apart. Given that the asteroid is tiny compared with the moon, it's not going to have much effect even if it happens to fly past the side of the Earth the moon happens to be on. Of course, every object in the universe has some gravitational effect on everything else, so it'll obviously not be zero, just insignificant.

For rep, try now I've cleared out my inbox a bit.