NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
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Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#2"2023BU: Earth is about to get one of its closest ever asteroid encounters (bbc.co.uk)" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34530744
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#3The article includes an inline embedded version of Eyes on Asteroids (https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids/#/asteroids), which is an amazingly impressive interactive live visualization of asteroids in the solar system. Dragging the time slider at the bottom lets you wind time backward and forward and watch the power-law relationship between orbital speed and radius (v ~ 1/sqrt(r)) in glorious fluid animation of countless asteroids swirling in the prevailing orbital direction of the solar system almost as a fluid. A masterful combination of data, graphics, software engineering, and UX.
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#4> The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, discoverer of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday, Jan. 21.
Discovered 5 days before its closest approach.
It’s amazing how much “stuff” is out there to learn, and how something can sneak in so “close”.
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#5This is HN, I can be cynical, right? Allow me to air one of my pet peeves: articles that make the threat of an asteroid collision with Earth something we should be afraid of. (Oh, and films of course.)
I never understood why anyone should give it any more than even a passing thought. As a layman my understanding is that the last great extinction event from an asteroid was like (Wikipedia tells me) 66 million years ago.
With that frequency/odds my fears seem much better afforded toward the dangers of climate change or any number of other issues that likely will have repercussions in my or my grandchildren's lifetimes.
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#6This is HN, I can be cynical, right? Allow me to air one of my pet peeves: articles that make the threat of an asteroid collision with Earth something we should be afraid of. (Oh, and films of course.) I never understood why anyone should give it any more than even a passing thought. As a layman my understanding is that the last great extinction event from an asteroid was like (Wikipedia tells me) 66 million years ag…
Yeah super volcanos and solar flares on the other hand...
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#7> The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, discoverer of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday, Jan. 21. Discovered 5 days before its closest approach. It’s amazing how much “stuff” is out there to learn, and how something can sneak in so “close”.
Sometimes they are only discovered after the closest approach. It depends a lot on where they're coming from relative to the sun.
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#8This is HN, I can be cynical, right? Allow me to air one of my pet peeves: articles that make the threat of an asteroid collision with Earth something we should be afraid of. (Oh, and films of course.) I never understood why anyone should give it any more than even a passing thought. As a layman my understanding is that the last great extinction event from an asteroid was like (Wikipedia tells me) 66 million years ag…
Yeah super volcanos and solar flares on the other hand...
For what it's worth, Yellowstone's upper lava chamber is 5% molten and the lower magma chamber is about 2% molten. To get eruptions that percentage has to be much higher as it is in the Hawaiian volcanoes. Scientists have differing opinions on how many years it will take to reach that level but all of their numbers are well over 10k years. I had to look into this prior to moving near it.
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#9Shameless plug: if you're interested in daily space information, including about nearby passing asteroids, give my Alexa skill "Spaceman" a try.
It provides info about those asteroids, as well as any scheduled rocket launches, for any date or date range. And it throws in the moon phase as well.
Re: NASA predicts asteroid to make one of closest approaches to Earth ever recorded
#10The article includes an inline embedded version of Eyes on Asteroids ( https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids/#/asteroids ), which is an amazingly impressive interactive live visualization of asteroids in the solar system. Dragging the time slider at the bottom lets you wind time backward and forward and watch the power-law relationship between orbital speed and radius (v ~ 1/sqrt(r)) in glorious fluid animation of cou…
It's worth taking a tour by clicking on particular objects that will zoom in close and show each object as seen by space probes that have visited. E.g. 21Lutetia that was photographed by Rosetta in 2010 is a 90km diameter oblong rotating once every 8 hours with three separate sets of impact craters in tight groups showing the impacts in each group were likely fragments of single objects. The craters are about 10-20km across.