Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

nasa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 76 posts

Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

#2

Post by Achshar »

Brace yourselves: the doomsday articles/memes/stories are coming..

PS will it be visible to naked eye? if yes then when and where and for how long and where in the sky? can there be a real time Google earth 3d simulation like NASA did for space shuttle launch?

Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

#4

Post by Achshar »

adyus wrote: post #3

Let's hope it has enough velocity to escape Earth's field and carry on. I'm sure it does, but I'll keep my fingers crossed, just in case.

from NASA's gif, it doesn't even bend its trajectory.. and also it's gravity will not affect earth's tides and tectonic plates :)

EDIT: although from the gif it appears that it was a close call on the moon. But i close my eyes and i see a world where i get out and see a small piece of rock hit our moon with a decent explosion when the moon is full. Man if it does't affect out planet in any way, i would really like to see that happen. Gives me goosebumps every time i visualize it! amazing..

Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

#5

Post by nickpinkston »

Achshar wrote: post #2

Brace yourselves: the doomsday articles/memes/stories are coming.. PS will it be visible to naked eye? if yes then when and where and for how long and where in the sky? can there be a real time Google earth 3d simulation like NASA did for space shuttle launch?

Good question - an aircraft carrier nearer than the moon? I can't imagine that'd be visible to the naked eye - even ships on the horizon disappear pretty quick. Then again you can see satellites sometimes, but that's like 4 orders of magnitude closer.

Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

#7

Post by Achshar »

nickpinkston wrote: post #5
Achshar wrote: post #2

Brace yourselves: the doomsday articles/memes/stories are coming.. PS will it be visible to naked eye? if yes then when and where and for how long and where in the sky? can there be a real time Google earth 3d simulation like NASA did for space shuttle launch?

Good question - an aircraft carrier nearer than the moon? I can't imagine that'd be visible to the naked eye - even ships on the horizon disappear pretty quick. Then again you can see satellites sometimes, but that's like 4 orders of magnitude closer.

well but if it comes when its night and it has a tail long enough and is also bright enough,and is close to moon from the perspective of someone on earth and hence moon light makes it more visible, then.. who knows??

Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

#8

Post by Cushman »

adyus wrote: post #3

Let's hope it has enough velocity to escape Earth's field and carry on. I'm sure it does, but I'll keep my fingers crossed, just in case.

Give science a little more credit :) The n-body problem is hard, but it's more like "we don't know if this same asteroid will hit the Earth 20 years from now" hard than "this asteroid could shift course at any moment!" hard.

Re: Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

#9

Post by ibrow »

Achshar wrote: post #4
adyus wrote: post #3

Let's hope it has enough velocity to escape Earth's field and carry on. I'm sure it does, but I'll keep my fingers crossed, just in case.

from NASA's gif, it doesn't even bend its trajectory.. and also it's gravity will not affect earth's tides and tectonic plates :) EDIT: although from the gif it appears that it was a close call on the moon. But i close my eyes and i see a world where i get out and see a small piece of rock hit our moon with a decent explosion when the moon is full. Man if it does't affect out planet in any way, i would really like to…

There's a thought. What would happen, hypothetically speaking, if an asteroid large enough were to hit the moon and spin it out of its orbit? What would happen to life here on Earth? Obviously tides would be affected, and I am assuming that this in itself would probably affect a lot of animals, fish, birds etc?
Post reply on HN