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News Flash: Asteroid Flying Past Earth Today Has Mini-Moon!
universetoday.com ^

Posted on 01/26/2015 6:34:33 PM PST by BenLurkin

Asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed closest to Earth today at a distance of 750,000 miles (1.2 million km), has a companion moon. Scientists working with NASA’s 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of the asteroid which show the tiny object in orbit about the main body.

...

2004 BL86 measures about 1,100 feet (325 meters) across while its moon is approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across. The asteroid made its closest approach today (Jan. 26th) at 10:19 a.m. (CST), however it will peak in brightness this evening around 10 p.m. (4:00 UT) at magnitude +9.0. Unlike some flybys, 2004 BL86 will remain within a few tenths of a magnitude of peak brightness from 6 p.m. tonight (CST) through early tomorrow morning, so don’t miss the chance to see it in your telescope.

(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: 2004bl86; asteroid; asteroids; catastrophism
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To: Flick Lives; BenLurkin

Put a pair of pants on it and it won’t moon us.


21 posted on 01/26/2015 6:53:13 PM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: sargon

Congratulations! You are the first human on earth to write that sentence. And it happenend right here on FR. Monumental!


22 posted on 01/26/2015 6:54:41 PM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: The Cajun

I saw that too, but I guess once they get big enough they tend to get rounder?


23 posted on 01/26/2015 6:59:17 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: sten

The mini moon is likely a piece of the main asteroid that got broken off during a collision with another object.


24 posted on 01/26/2015 6:59:50 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: a fool in paradise

If you run out of gas, get ethyl. If ethyl runs out, get Mabel.


25 posted on 01/26/2015 7:04:17 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: a fool in paradise

lol


26 posted on 01/26/2015 7:09:50 PM PST by GeronL
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To: BenLurkin

A Mini Moon! Yes! That's what I need!

27 posted on 01/26/2015 7:18:04 PM PST by uglybiker (nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-BATMAN!)
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To: BenLurkin

It’s snowing in DC. What asteroid?

On second thought, this is DC so we have many Hemorrhoids instead. I can see them from my window. They are called Democrats and politicians.


28 posted on 01/26/2015 7:19:53 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: BenLurkin

Modern physics (qm gr) is all the rage, but good old classical mechanics has a certain beauty and simplicity that just can’t be beat.


29 posted on 01/26/2015 7:31:48 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: BenLurkin

30 posted on 01/26/2015 7:40:04 PM PST by moovova
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To: a fool in paradise

boogida boogida


31 posted on 01/26/2015 7:44:12 PM PST by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothings)
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To: Stingray51
To me, it seems strange that a smallish object like an asteroid would have enough gravity to keep a moon in its orbit.

Consider that the nucleus of an atom can hold all kinds of electrons in moonlike orbit. Yet the nucleus is so tiny we cannot even see it.

32 posted on 01/26/2015 7:58:38 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: BenLurkin

?zer0’s brain?

Wait there is Mass to it so that blows that theory...


33 posted on 01/26/2015 8:18:41 PM PST by mabarker1 (congress, The Opposite of Progress.)
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To: BenLurkin; cogitator; SunkenCiv

I’m going to wait until that glint of light has made at least one orbit.

Looks like it though.


34 posted on 01/26/2015 8:36:14 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: moovova

If you moon an ASSteroid, you will be the butt of many jokes.


35 posted on 01/26/2015 9:00:40 PM PST by fhayek
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To: Jack Hydrazine

“U-Pump Ethyl”. My very favorite gas,station of all time. Columbia, MO, 1972.


36 posted on 01/26/2015 9:51:29 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Stingray51

The trick is that gravity is based on mass and distance. In the asteroid belt, the planets are so far away that their gravitational influence is very weak. Asteroids have much less mass, but since they are much closer, they exert the largest attraction in the neighborhood, and start orbiting each other.


37 posted on 01/26/2015 10:29:45 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: UCANSEE2

“Consider that the nucleus of an atom can hold all kinds of electrons in moonlike orbit.”

It doesn’t hold them in orbit with gravity though, that is electromagnetism.

Possibly manifestations of the same basic force, but we haven’t established that connection yet.


38 posted on 01/26/2015 10:36:38 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: BenLurkin

Man! This could be the little planet the fierce little starship warriors come from that fly out of the dog’s head in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. That passage was so cool I had to read it a couple of times. Anyone remember that?


39 posted on 01/26/2015 10:37:36 PM PST by bluejean (The lunatics are running the asylum)
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To: BenLurkin

Yeah, the bigger the object (or the more mass really), the higher its gravity becomes. That will tend to distort the object into a compact, round shape, as all the matter tries to get as close as possible to the center of mass.


40 posted on 01/26/2015 10:41:06 PM PST by Boogieman
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