There’s no danger that the asteroid will strike Earth, but Sky and Telescope reports that if it did, it would “deliver a kinetic-energy punch equivalent to several thousand megatons of TNT … the kind of potential threat that outer-space sentries lose sleep over.”
PASADENA, Calif. — Scientists working with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a short movie clip of asteroid 2005 YU55. The images were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Nov. 7, 2011, between 11:24 a.m. and 1:35 p.m. PST (2:24 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. EST). They are the highest-resolution images ever generated by radar of a near-Earth object.
Each of the six frames required 20 minutes of data collection by the Goldstone radar. At the time, 2005 YU55 was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Resolution is 4 meters per pixel.
“The movie shows the small subset of images obtained at Goldstone on November 7 that have finished processing. By animating a sequence of radar images, we can see more surface detail than is visible otherwise,” said radar astronomer Lance Benner, the principal investigator for the 2005 YU55 observations, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “The animation reveals a number of puzzling structures on the surface that we don’t yet understand. To date, we’ve seen less than one half of the surface, so we expect more surprises.”
The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach today at 3:28 p.m. PST (6:28 p.m. EST/2328 UTC), it was no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers), as measured from the center of Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet’s tides or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200 years.
The last time a space rock as big came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this large will be in 2028. NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called “Spaceguard,” discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.
JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch . More information about asteroid radar research is at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ . More information about the Deep Space Network is at: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .
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As has been pointed out here many times, NEOs are a real threat to Earth, and worth spending time, expertise, and money on detecting and working out interception strategies. But of course, unlike utterly fabulous fears of ‘climate change’, the enterprise could never (short of an imminent mega threat—cf. Max Erlich, The Big Eye) serve as an excuse for totalitarian ‘global governance’.
/Mr Lynn
Now an asteroid strike is something that really could wreak havoc on the planet, and one doesn’t have to parse tons of data with monster super computers trying to find a signal in the data that is mostly overhwhelmed by noise to prove it.
How much of the bill does the United Nations pony up for keeping watch on this ACTUAL threat to humanity?
What? Nothing? The United States of America pays the whole shot themselves and stands on gaurd for the safety of the human race and the entire planet all on their own? Without even asking any other countries to help? You know the countries I’m talking about, the ones that take every opportunity to pee all over the U.S. of A?
Well, I’m not an American, and while I think that the chances of an asteroid strike are remote, I think ignoring the possibility of one would be just plain stupid. Thanks America, for looking out for the rest of us, and may (deity of your choice) bless.
Well, we found the bowling ball. Now we need to locate the pins. GK
Took some searching through the links, but I finaly found the size of the thing. It is passing just inside the orbit of the moon.
NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon’s orbit on Nov. 8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity – allowing instruments on “spacecraft Earth” to scan it during the close pass.
Detected late and very heavy, deflection might be impossible. If we can only steer these things a little bit, can I nominate some landing sites? I’ve got a little list.
I crunched the numbers to put this near miss in more down-to-earth distances: if you were jogging along a circular track the diameter of St. Paul’s Cathedral (representing the earth orbiting around the sun) and someone took a shot at you, the bullet would miss you by about an inch and a half.
Going by numerous local and national TV news reports, the size of this asteroid is one Aircraft Carrier. As a sad indicator of current journalistic standards, quite appalling, they failed to provide the factor to convert this to Olympic-sized Swimming Pools.
The big threat is coming around 2028, the problem being, telescopes or what ever they use, can not pick up comets, asteroids or meteors heading towards earth or the moon, from the direction of the sun. They are blinded and notice of an impending impact only with a few days notice.
And unlike carbon taxes, AGW, climate change hysteria, there is b…. nothing we can do. But
it was suggested that rockets launch from space with nuclear heads might intercept one enough to change its direction. Too sci-fi for me. I’m trying to cope with paying my electricity bill.
DANG IT!
Several thousand megatons would have been enough to slow down Global Warming for a while!
What a great opportunity we missed to heal the planet.
Hemroids are a greater threat but they strike the earth in a different way.
davidmhoffer said:
November 8, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Now an asteroid strike is something that really could wreak havoc on the planet, and one doesn’t have to parse tons of data with monster super computers trying to find a signal in the data that is mostly overwhelmed by noise to prove it.
How much of the bill does the United Nations pony up for keeping watch on this ACTUAL threat to humanity?
What? Nothing? The United States of America pays the whole shot themselves and stands on gaurd for the safety of the human race and the entire planet all on their own?…
—————————————————-
Well said Sir! 🙂
How long before the Union of Concerned Scientists (of which I am an esteamed member) begins to educate us in the perils of a warming climate resulting in more frequent and more severe asteroid impact potential?
Any body going to have better pictures? Any information on alterations in asteroid orbit due to close pass by earth.
Next time we need to put somebody on board.
davidmhoffer says:
November 8, 2011 at 7:44 pm
“Well, I’m not an American, and while I think that the chances of an asteroid strike are remote, I think ignoring the possibility of one would be just plain stupid. Thanks America, for looking out for the rest of us, and may (deity of your choice) bless.”
David,
A heartfelt ‘Thank You, Sir!’
Sometimes, with all of the wrong headed things going down in the US of A and elsewhere, I lose perspective on the many things my beleaguered country does right.
MtK
I wonder how many thousands of tons of carbon that would be equivalent to and why people still use TNT as a comparison. Carbon is a far more chilling prospect. 🙂
OK so how many African Elephants goes it mass? (favorite mass unit of the ABC in Australia)
Time to dust off the plans for Project Orion (the original one, not the pissant recent NASA welfare program).
Asteroid 2005 YU55 will approach the earth when it pass the lunar orbit…
>>>http://tinyurl.com/Asteroid-2005-YU55
Another lifeless rock in space. ho hum. I prefer the amazing cornucopia of life here on earth, particular that in the, as of yet, inaccessible reaches of the ocean depths.
Crispin in Waterloo says:
November 8, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Instead, just expose Al Gore to it and it will fall harmlessly frozen out of the sky. (Since it isn’t made of CO2, I’m sure Hansen will let it land on his front yard.)
dp says:
November 8, 2011 at 9:07 pm
I wonder how many thousands of tons of carbon that would be equivalent to and why people still use TNT as a comparison.
Global Warming Equivalents? I like it!! Instead of tons of TNT, ppm CO2?? Instead of tons of TNT, Thousands of Carbon Footprints? Instead of tons of TNT, we could pay tribute, and use Algores. (Algore: A mythical unit that doesn’t really do anything, but it costs a lot of money and destroys economies. Known to cause unprecedented snowing at conventions)
“no closer than 201,700 miles ”
Oh well, better luck next time.
Greg Cavanagh says:
November 8, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Took some searching through the links, but I finaly found the size of the thing. It is passing just inside the orbit of the moon.
What happens if it actually hits the moon on a future pass? Is it big enough to affect the moon’s orbit? Just askin …
Truth seeker, without an atmosphere there could be one more big hole on the moons surface, but not enough to shift it’s orbit – that would be terrible for Earth. But an astronomer might have a more accurate answer to your query. It’s the ones you can’t see approaching that could be troublesome. The ones that come from the sun they can’t been spotted until they are quite close..
Truthseeker says:
November 8, 2011 at 10:57 pm
What happens if it actually hits the moon on a future pass? Is it big enough to affect the moon’s orbit? Just askin …
First, you have to choose… a direct head-on slammer, a backside perk in the velocity, or a full broadside slap? ☺
to ‘nearly miss’ something is to HIT it… am I the only sane person on the planet? or shall I blame human mindlessness and adherence to newspeak?