61–70 of 84 posts
I think it's unfortunate that our government (in the US) is spending trillions left and right, but won't spend a few Billion to address genuine existential threats such as early detection of asteroids.
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Is there no parallax as the Earth moves around the Sun? Are these asteroids in some crazy hyperbolic orbit coming in straight from outside the solar system?
No, it looks like this asteroid had a similar trajectory as Earth around the sun, but after the encounter its path will be altered significantly. "Before encountering Earth, the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun was roughly circular, approximating Earth’s orbit, taking 359 days to complete its orbit about the Sun. After its encounter, the asteroid’s orbit will be more elongated, moving it out to about halfway between E…
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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.
0.00007 AU is how close the approach is estimated to be which is ~6500 miles. So I think we're safe haha.
When I was about 10 years old 1983 (+/- 2 years) I was 'camping' in my backyard with a friend. While we were running around in the dark we saw an asteroid bounce off the atmosphere and either enter below my visual horizon or pass by the earth. It was about the size golfball/chicken egg held at arms length. I was facing East-South-East (approximately). It was a bright red, and I could see impact craters on the surface…
This 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…
The fact that it happened so long ago makes it more likely to happen sooner. Also, my understanding is that we don't really have a good grasp of what's out there outside of of the immediate vicinity of Earth. There are millions and millions of them hurling through our system. A planet-killer can show up on our radar any day.
The current goal of NASA asteroid detection is 90% of 150m asteroids which can cause regional disaster.
0.00007 AU is how close the approach is estimated to be which is ~6500 miles. So I think we're safe haha.
It's also tiny, less than 10m across. Barely enough to reach the ground before disintegrating due to atmospheric heating.
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Eros in June 2028 looks pretty close to earth.
The one in the article is gonna be <5,000km away. Eros is always like at least 15,000,000km+ away, at its closest. Something like that.