Anyone have a recommendation for a kick ass telescope that could see this thing? Best bang for the buck kinda deal.
Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
51–60 of 76 posts
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would it sound less far-fetched if we talked about mining asteroids for rare-earth metals, conductive metals like copper, industrial metals like titanium, etc?
The sad part is that regardless of whether it's copper or gold, the economics of mining asteroids still doesn't work out.
Not yet. Give me a space elevator that gets me to geostationary orbit via electricity, and I think that statement could become untrue (assuming sufficient amount of ore and ease of extraction).
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#53The Moon is much larger and much farther away from the Earth than you are probably imagining when you hear this. Still cool, though.
Here's an image of the Earth (on the left) and the Moon (on the right) to get a better sense of the distance between the two: http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/51000/5196...
Wow, I'm not sure I fully grasped the distance until I saw that picture. The fact that people actually went allllll the way out there and back just astounds me.
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#54Anyone have a recommendation for a kick ass telescope that could see this thing? Best bang for the buck kinda deal.
I can't imagine how difficult it would be to target and track this thing with a consumer-grade telescope.
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hear stuff like this a lot (mining asteroids for precious metals)... Wouldn't flooding the market with that much gold...crash it? Are we really talking about that many billions and billions of dollars worth of potential revenue from mining an asteroid? This all just seems like fun sci-fantasy.
You could make the same arguement without any sci-fantasy. Why bother starting a new gold mine? If it doesn't have any gold then it's wasted effort, and if it has tons of gold then it will just depress prices. So why bother exploring for any resources anywhere? Instead consider a big hunk of asteroid mined gold sitting in orbit. Free storage, and quick delivery to anywhere in the world. Park it up there and drop piec…
The way you describe that perfrectly fots in with my idea that a 'caught' asteroid in orbit is worth more as a weapon system than as a gold mine. "Park it up there and drop pieces of it when you need some penetrating power"
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#56The Moon is much larger and much farther away from the Earth than you are probably imagining when you hear this. Still cool, though.
Here's an image of the Earth (on the left) and the Moon (on the right) to get a better sense of the distance between the two: http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/51000/5196...
I like this better. Also shows you the speed of light.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Speed_of_...
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#57Isn't about half the universe closer to the Earth than to the moon (at a particular time)? Meaning: stand on a point of the Earth such that the moon is situated exactly above the opposite side of the Earth. Then look up. All that stuff you see is closer to the Earth than the moon.
This is the logical extension of the peek-a-boo fallacy.
The moon doesn't stop being closer to the earth simply because you can't see it from a particular point on the Earth.
About the only thing you can say is that if you were to proceed outward on a linear path from the opposite side of the Earth from that which the moon is currently positioned, then you would reach something other than the moon sooner than you would reach the moon.
But that would be saying nothing, really.
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#58I'd guess that roughly 50% of asteroids passing by end up closer to the earth than the moon.
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#59Isn't about half the universe closer to the Earth than to the moon (at a particular time)? Meaning: stand on a point of the Earth such that the moon is situated exactly above the opposite side of the Earth. Then look up. All that stuff you see is closer to the Earth than the moon.
Haha, yes! They meant "closer to the earth than the moon is", not "closer to the earth than to the moon." It will never meet that second criterion, since it will only be about 20% closer to the earth than the moon is.
Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would it sound less far-fetched if we talked about mining asteroids for rare-earth metals, conductive metals like copper, industrial metals like titanium, etc?
The sad part is that regardless of whether it's copper or gold, the economics of mining asteroids still doesn't work out.
No, it just doesn't work out if you have a naive business model. Think a little bit and you'll find profitable ways to do it.