This composite of 30 images of asteroid 2014 JO25 was generated with radar data collected,
using NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar in California’s Mojave Desert on Tuesday April 18.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR
Posted on 04/09/2017 9:07:21 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A relatively large asteroid will cross Earth's orbit around the sun this month. Astrophysicists and astronomers say there is no chance of a collision, but it will be the closest flyby of an asteroid that large for at least another 10 years.
Asteroid 2014 JO25, discovered three years ago, is about 650 meters (2,100 feet) in diameter, 60 times as large as the small asteroid that plunged into our atmosphere as a meteor and exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013. That blast was felt thousands of kilometers away and caused havoc on the ground, damaging more than 7,000 homes and offices and injuring 1,500 people.
Asteroid 2014 JO25's pass by Earth on April 19 will be a near miss, cosmically speaking. The U.S. space agency NASA said no one should worry: "There is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, [but] this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size."
The Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union classifies 2014 JO25 as a "potentially hazardous asteroid." (Astronomers classify asteroids as "minor planets"; when they pass close to Earth they are termed "near Earth objects.")
I follow it because it interests me, not because I think it’s more accurate.
Arecibo Observatory Planetary Radar System observations on 17 April reveal that peanut-shaped asteroid 2014 JO25 is twice as large as previously thought. This looping movie of the 1.3-kilometre-long body was produced by combining several delay-Doppler images. The movie spans two hours of observations. Vertical resolution is 7.5 metres/pixel. Movie credit: Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF.An asteroid discovered three years ago by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona as part of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program passes within five lunar distances of Earth on 19 April — the closest any known space rock of this size has approached our planet since September 2004. Previously believed to be 650 metres in diameter, data gathered by the Arecibo Observatory Planetary Radar System in Puerto Rico on 17 April reveals that the peanut-shaped asteroid is double that size.
Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.9 x 10^21 Joules = 6.93 x 10^5 MegaTons TNT
The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 30.4 km ( = 18.9 miles ). For the crater formed in the seafloor: Transient Crater Diameter: 16.4 km ( = 10.2 miles ) Transient Crater Depth: 5.79 km ( = 3.59 miles ) Final Crater Diameter: 23.7 km ( = 14.7 miles ) Final Crater Depth: 767 meters ( = 2520 feet ) The crater formed is a complex crater. The volume of the target melted or vaporized is 10.1 km^3 ( = 2.42 miles^3 ) Roughly half the melt remains in the crater, where its average thickness is 48 meters ( = 158 feet ).
The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 3.33 minutes after impact. Richter Scale Magnitude: 8.3 Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 1000 km:
• Felt quite noticeably by persons indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings. Many people do not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly. Vibrations similar to the passing of a truck.
• Felt indoors by many, outdoors by few during the day. At night, some awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably.
TSUNAMI
The impact-generated tsunami wave arrives approximately 3.6 hours after impact. Tsunami wave amplitude is between: 9.28 meters ( = 30.4 feet) and 18.6 meters ( = 60.9 feet).
Why does flat earth nonsense “interest” you, exactly? People like you are the problem with Free Republic, I swear.
People like you have no interest, no imagination and are utterly stultifying, so FOAD.
Go suck start a shotgun. Be sure to live stream it so we can watch too.
Charming. How do your neighbors deal with your autism?
Takes one to know one.
I tried to tell y’all that the Cubs winning the World Series was a sign of the End Times.
That's what they always say. Sorry, the Ninth Circuit Court has declared the laws of physics not to be applicable in this case. So now what are we going to do?
Jupiter gets all the big asteroids.
And those who overlook our puny size get blocked by the moon.
Like who asked her to play chaperon?
So Michelle Obama is coming in for a landing? ;-P
It takes a neighbor to know a neighbor?
Nonsensical.
Why don’t you go FOAD yourself? Hey, you brought up the idea, I just suggested you live cast yours.
Have the last word. I demand it.
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