Two asteroids to pass close to Earth on Wednesday

[NoodleyAppendage]

Source: CNN

Two small asteroids in unrelated orbits will pass within the moon's distance of the Earth on Wednesday, according to NASA.

It's an unusual event that shows the need for closer monitoring of near space for Earth-threatening encounters, a scientist with the program said.

The objects don't pose a threat to Earth, and they will not be visible to the naked eye, said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near Earth Program, which tracks potentially hazardous asteroids and comets within 28 million miles of Earth.

The objects will visible from Earth as tiny specks of light with the help of moderate-sized amateur telescopes, he said.

Near-Earth asteroid 2010 RX30, which is estimated to be 32 to 65 feet in size, will pass within 154,000 miles of Earth at 5:51 a.m. ET Wednesday. The second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 20 to 46 feet in size, will pass within 49,088 miles of Earth at 5:12 pm ET.

Read more: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/?hpt=C2

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So much for advance notice of these dangerous things...

[WillParkinson]

1. What are you talking about?

They've given you nearly 24 hours to get your affairs in order.

[Occulus]

7. I gather that if either of these were to "hit" Earth

they would probably produce nothing more than a lightshow and a shockwave as they burned up.

These are fairly small rocks. It does point out how blind to these we are, though.

[NoodleyAppendage]

8. Not necessarily so.

On June 6, 2002 an object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters collided with Earth. The collision occurred over the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Libya, at approximately 34°N 21°E and the object exploded in mid-air. The energy released was estimated (from infrasound measurements) to be equivalent to 26 kilotons of TNT, comparable to a small nuclear weapon Do the math...the largest is almost 2 x as large...i wonder if we had a plan?

[Nihil]

15. The biggest threat from one of those smaller objects wouldn't be the impact ...

... it would be from itchy trigger-fingers misinterpreting the cause
of the explosion and deciding to launch a retaliatory strike ...

[IndianaGreen]

2. Roughly 50 million objects pass through near-Earth space each day

The first will be closest to Earth over the north Pacific, and the second, over Antarctica.

Roughly 50 million objects pass through near-Earth space each day, Yeomans said.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/?hpt=C2

50 million? I hope that is a big typo!

[NoodleyAppendage]

3. Yes, but the majority of those are speck-sized particles, not +kiloton bomb sized like these! n/t

Arghhhh...

J

[IndianaGreen]

6. The orbit of 2010 RF12 is affected by its close pass to the Earth

I wonder what the new orbit will look like.

[slackmaster]

4. What does one wear to an asteroid passing?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GU2rm6ZWEiM/SObERFKr-xI/AAAAAAAAB14/DOTrSfI9DZk/s400/mrs+howell.jpg

[NoodleyAppendage]

5. "Starless and Bible Black" n/t

A little tip of the hat to King Crimson.

[Zambero]

11. Why not rename them...

Moonchild & Earthbound

[cosmicone]

16. or Bush and Cheney

dumb rocks which nearly destroyed the planet but not quite ... of course, the larger one will be Cheney

[AlbertCat]

9. The objects don't pose a threat to Earth,

Can we send up Bruce Willis anyway?


Please?

[spin]

10. The Chicago fire of 1871 might have been caused by a comet not a cow ...

DID BIELA’S COMET CAUSE THE
CHICAGO AND MIDWEST FIRES?

Robert M. Wood

Newport Beach, California

On October 8, 1871, a fire started that
burned much of Chicago, killing 300, and
destroying $200,000,000 worth of property.
Most people are unaware that within a few
minutes, major fires started in upstate
Wisconsin and Michigan, killing more than
2000 people in the farming country. Because
of the poor communications with the upstate
areas, the magnitude of the upstate horror
was not known for weeks.

Biela's Comet, with a solar orbital period
of 6 years 9 months, had been disturbed by
Jupiter on a previous passage and broke into
two large comets. It has been hypothesized
that one of them struck Earth and broke into
several smaller pieces. These pieces,
consisting of frozen comet gases would have
likely included combustibles like methane
CH4 and acetylene C2H2 that melted,
vaporized and explosively ignited, causing
impressive incendiary results upstate,
consistent with surviving witness reports.

Witness reports from Chicago included
statements that entire basements exploded
with a blue flame and that red-hot sand came
raining down. In upstate Wisconsin near
Green Bay, there were reports of “fire
balloons” about one meter in size falling
from the sky that exploded with great heat
when ignited, incinerating objects struck. If
fire balloons consisted of methane, one ton
of methane would be the energy equivalent
of 12 tons of TNT if stoichiometrically
burned. There were also reports that the fire
came directly from the sky, with a trembling
of the earth – perhaps a symptom of a shock
wave. The loss of life was the greatest of
any fire in U.S. history, and the area burned
of all trees and secondary growth
approximated the size of Connecticut.
http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyMPDC04_865/PV2004_1419.pdf

[jmondine]

12. Maybe we can finally shake those tie fighters off our tail

[Ian David]

13. Bush cut the Earth-crossing Asteroid monitoring budget by like 90%. n/t

[Roland99]

14. Asteroids hate us for our freedom.