GeologyRocksEarth gets near-cut from asteroid
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John
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Hi HeatherQ, I read about
Thu, 06/30/2011 - 06:32Hi HeatherQ,
I read about this AFTER it missed us. This is not the first time we've had near misses by NEO but haven't been told about it until afterwards is it?
John
“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” - Will Durant
John
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Because either they forgot
Wed, 07/06/2011 - 13:52Because either they forgot to turn the robotic telescopes on, didn't put any money in the meter to run them or didn't want to worry us with such a triffling little rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'Elf 'n Safety really must wake their ideas up.
John
“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” - Will Durant
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Earth gets near-cut from asteroid
Submitted by HeatherQ on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 05:56.A huge asteroid will streak above the Atlantic Monday morning, coming within 7,500 miles of the ground. It is the 5th nearest near-miss in recorded history, and is nearer to earth than the moon. Post resource - Fifth closest Asteroid recorded shaves the passes earth by Newsytype.com.
We're in no danger, scientists say
When it comes to astronomical terms, the 2011 MD trajectory is quite near. There is no danger of a collision happening though, according to scientists. In February 2011, asteroid 2011 CQ1 came within 3,405 miles of Earth without incident. The Asteroid Watch Twitter feed was used by the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., to inform everybody. They made it clear that they're watching for difficulties:
"Scientists will use the close pass as an opportunity to study it with radar observations... Stony asteroids of less than 25 meters will break up in Earth's atmosphere and not cause ground damage."
LINEAR dedicated to asteroid detection
The asteroid 2011 MD was discovered on June 22 by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes located in New Mexico. The reason for the devices is to protect The planet. They consistently look for asteroids about to hit.
A lot of asteroids out there
Any products of mineral and ice that orbit the sun are called asteroids. The larger ones are often called planetoids. The vast majority of asteroids found in our solar system orbit between Jupiter and Mars. At one time, it was believed that passing asteroids were a rare occurrence. Scientists have been able to study them better. They discovered the asteroids are much more common than originally believed.
About 8,100 Near-Earth objects are out there and known about. When one is really near and very large, it is considered Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). There have been 1,236 labeled this way.
What NASA plans to do next
In the wake of NASA's scrubbed shuttle program, the organization has declared its intention demolition to an asteroid as its next challenge. The asteroid 1999 RQ36 has a 1 in 1,800 chance of hitting Earth before 2170 hits. That is why the mission will hit it and plans to do so in 2020.
Citations
Space.com
space.com/12067-asteroid-2011-md-close-earth-flyby-june-27.html
Universe Today
universetoday.com/87035/another-asteroid-to-give-earth-a-close-shave-june-27-2011/
Huffington Post
huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/27/asteroid-today-2011_n_885052.html