News Bit of a worry :p

[rynnor]

"An asteroid which may be as big as a ten-storey building has passed close by the Earth, astronomers say.

The object, known as 2009 DD45, thought to be 21-47m (68-152ft) across, raced by our planet at 1344 GMT on Monday."

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Space rock makes close approach

The worrying bit is that they didnt spot this till saturday!

If it had actually looked like it was going to hit the earth it would not have left much time to evacuate the area*

And it passed at less than twice the height of geo-stationery satelites - thats pretty close for something we didnt know existed till the weekend.

Scary stuff!


* It would have been a very large area since they arent good at predicting such impacts since they can only guess at its mass as its makeup would be unknown.

 

[Overdriven]

Oouucchh.

 

[ECA]

Pffft, they just don't want to announce the truth.
Did any of you see Bruce Willis last weekend? I thought not!

 

[Ch3tan]

I think it is more likely that it was noticed and hushed up. A story like that before the event would cause panic, and there are lots of crazy people in this world who would get up to no good.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Yeh I'm pretty sure if I'd known about that in advance I'd have worked out something nasty from here in my secret volcanoe lair.

 

[chipper]

im not actually sure we did spot it ya know we can only track a very small section of space at any one time so its quite easy for something like this to swing by us unknown

 

[Fweddy]

Yeh I'm pretty sure if I'd known about that in advance I'd have worked out something nasty from here in my secret volcanoe lair.

If you really were an evil genius in a secret lair you'd be able to spell volcano correctly. You're a normul person aren't you?

 

[old.Tohtori]

im not actually sure we did spot it ya know we can only track a very small section of space at any one time so its quite easy for something like this to swing by us unknown

3% wasn't it? Or some other ridicilously low amount.

Interesting news though, would've been nice to get a heads up for a "lookie", but meh...

 

[Cyradix]

If you really were an evil genius in a secret lair you'd be able to spell volcano correctly. You're a normul person aren't you?

He really is evil, but might still need some help at the genius part
Here is some help Roo

Top 50 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became an Evil Overlord

Important message for everyone who is interested in world domination...

1. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass
visors, not face-concealing ones.

2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

3. My noble half-brother, whose throne I usurped, will be killed, not
kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

5. The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on
the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the
Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. (The same
applies to the object that is my one weakness.)

6. I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

7. When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill
me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No,"
and shoot him. No, on second thoughts, I'll shoot him and then say "No."

8. I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely
necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a big red button
labelled
"DANGER: DO NOT PUSH". The big red button marked "DO NOT PUSH" will
instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to
disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not be clearly labeled as such.

9. All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds
of ammunition emptied into them - not left for dead at the bottom of
the cliff.

10. The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any
other last request.

11. I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find
that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to
activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his
plan into operation.

12. I will never utter the sentence, "Before I kill you, there's just
one thing I want to know."

13. When I employ people as advisers, I will occasionally listen to
their advice. One of my advisers will be an average five-year-old child.
Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before
implementation.

14. Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in
maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected
developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to
accordingly.

15. I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original
uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs
that make them look like Nazi storm troopers, Roman foot soldiers or
savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my
troops to have a more positive mindset.

16. I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my
troops in their use. That way, even if the heroes manage to neutralize
my power generator or render the standard-issue energy weapons
useless, my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

17. No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any
sort of machinery that is completely indestructible except for one
small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.

18. I will never build only one of anything important. All important
systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the
same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at
all times.

19. My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot
escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.

20. I will dress in bright and cheery colors and so throw my enemies
into confusion.

21. All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, talentless bards and
cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My
foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no
source of comic relief.

22. I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad
news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard
to come by.

23. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

24. If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride
at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my
opposite number among his army.

25. When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog,
monkey, ferret or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of
untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

26. If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact that can destroy
me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send
them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the
local paper.

27. I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to
examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned
tunnels that I might not know about.

28. If the beautiful princess that I capture says, "I'll never marry
you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!" I will say, "Oh well" and kill
her.

29. My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any
who cannot hit a man-sized target at ten meters will be used for
target practice.

30. Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will
carefully read the owner's manual.

31. If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose
dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

32. I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.

33. I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely
unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits that could prove to be a
disadvantage.

34. When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always
travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one
of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will
immediately initiate an alert and call for backup instead of
quizzically peering round a corner.

35. I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse
instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack
him one or two at a time.

36. If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and
struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also
not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge
over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

37. If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have
disarmed him and am about to finish him off, and he glances behind me
and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning
round to find out what he saw.

38. I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in
front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

39. If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then
have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for
both of us instead of trying to decide whether or to switch with him.

40. I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of opposite
sex.

41. I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly
complicated, e.g. "Align the twelve stones of power on the sacred
altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse."
Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

42. My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use.
Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

43. If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate
them for incompetence and then send the same group out to try the task
again.

44. I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation
is facing away from the door.

45. If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and an
underling who failed or betrayed me, I will see to it that the hero is
scheduled to go first.

46. When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop
and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.

47. My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with
bodyguards so that if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells
the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team
instead of opening up the cell for a look.

48. My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain
reflective surfaces or anything that can be unravelled.

49. Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45 MB in
size.

50. Finally, to keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless
trance, I will provide each of them with free unlimited Internet access.

 

[Scouse]

And it passed at less than twice the height of geo-stationery satelites - thats pretty close for something we didnt know existed till the weekend.

Erm...

The latest object, 2009 DD45, passed by our planet at only twice the altitude of satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

 

[rynnor]

There was a scary time for about 6 hours in Jan 2004 when they thought that they had found an asteroid that was on a collision course with the earth but luckily later observations showed it wasnt just before they were going to brief President Bush.

It was a big bugger too - 500m accross - the scary bit was that if it had been found to impact the earth they could only estimate which hemisphere it would impact - good luck trying to evacuate half the earth in a day or two!

Get digging those Asteroid shelters folks!

 

[Cadelin]

Erm...

I read those two as meaning roughly the same thing.

Anyway the whole geostationary orbit is misleading because that is actually quite far from the earth.

Lowest possible orbit is around: 160km above the earth
International Space Station orbit is between: 319.6 km and 346.9 km above the earth
Geostationary Orbit is: 35 786 km above the earth.

To put that in perspective the diameter of the earth is 12 756.2 km. Therefore very roughly speaking you could have fitted over 5 earths inside the gap between the actual earth and the closest point the asteroid came to us. Close in astronomical terms but it still missed us by along way.

 

[rynnor]

Erm...

Heh - now in my defense there are a number of figures floating around about how close this asteroid actually was - from 70,000Km - 76,000Km.

Geo-stationery Sattelites in the 'Clark Belt' are at about 36,000Km so depending on which figure you pick both answers could be right

To put this in context the moon is generally about 380,000Km from the earth so this asteroid passed at less than a fifth of the moons orbit distance.

The big problem with such near misses is that anything that comes that close to the earths gravity field will be twisted in its path so that it becomes more likely to impact in the future.

 

[Cadelin]

To put this in context the moon is generally about 380,000Km from the earth so this asteroid passed at less than a fifth of the moons orbit distance.

That's a crap context. The only useful context is to compare it with the size of the target (ie the earth). Target is 12 000 km across, it missed by 70 000+ km.

 

[rynnor]

That's a crap context. The only useful context is to compare it with the size of the target (ie the earth). Target is 12 000 km across, it missed by 70 000+ km.

Thats your interpretation - both are factually correct, I chose mine because I think its easier for people to see how something that comes over 5 times closer than the moon will have its orbit perturbed by the earths gravitational field.

 

[Dark Orb Choir]

fuck the asteroid coz im a teenager
with a little bit of gold and a pager
Searchin the geo-stationary orbit, lookin for the Earth
Who cares coz it aint got the girth

 

[Cadelin]

Thats your interpretation - both are factually correct, I chose mine because I think its easier for people to see how something that comes over 5 times closer than the moon will have its orbit perturbed by the earths gravitational field.

But without other information about the trajectory of the object that is irrelevant. All we know is that's its orbiting around the Sun and that it is currently heading away from earth. There is no reason to suspect it will come anywhere near earth for a very long time. The fact that it came near earth doesn't mean it is anymore likely to impact again in future, look at voyager it used a gravitational slignshot to get out the solar system, that's certainly not going to impact on any of the planets it had a near miss with anytime soon.

The ancient Greeks were able to measure the movement of celestial bodies. Anything that passes by earth with a relatively frequent period has been already identified. Those that haven't are once in a 1000+ years type events.

But yes both are factually correct, although I don't think that many people know how far the moon is away from us! I just dislike the way that people only ever seem to take an interest in physics if they believe there is some possibility of the end of the world. However I work at CERN so maybe my views are clouded by all the bullshit about world destroying black holes last year.

 

[rynnor]

What I love about near misses of asteroids is the recognition of how much our understanding of 'the heavens' has changed in the last few centuries.

We have gone from the belief that everything up there was orderly and set into motion by god, that the heavens are serene to our pretty recent understanding that we are actually riding on the back of a rock surrounded by a huge number of other rocks bouncing around like pinballs

I think it was the impact on Jupiter by Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 in 1994 that convinced the last few holdouts and prompted the funding for the current searches.

I think its worth raising awareness of the precarious situation we are in so that funding doesnt get cut?