Posted on 03/02/2018 3:24:26 PM PST by BenLurkin
An asteroid up to 1600ft in diameter is set to fly by Earth in the early hours of March 7. Named 2017 VR12, NASA has called the object potentially hazardous.
But dont worrythe space rock shouldnt get closer than 900,000 miles from Earth. Thats far enough to stay safe, and maybe even close enough to watch on a home telescope.
Larger than the Empire State Building?
It is difficult to work out an asteroids size at great distance, but we can estimate. The asteroid is a mere point of light in our telescopes: we cannot resolve its size that way, Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Newsweek.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Niburu
I thought it was going say it would hit the Empire State Building. Darn.
or
It could not be.
How long before bpearthwatch starts claims that it is causing earthquakes and such?
And what if it were calculated to pass at a distance of 50 miles and be pulled into the earth’s gravitational field. What would we do?
“And what if it were calculated to pass at a distance of 50 miles and be pulled into the earths gravitational field. What would we do?”
Anything you wanted.
Prepare to meet my Maker.
If we knew it’s trajectory, couldn’t we launch a nuke-armed space vehicle and intercept it before it reached earth’s gravitational field?
Correction: If we knew its trajectory, couldnt we launch a nuke-armed space vehicle and intercept it before it reached earths gravitational field?
this is all part of the bomb cyclone
Watch it go by! 50 miles would be the closest approach of its hyperbolic orbit. It would have to graze the atmosphere to lose speed and fall to the surface.
Women and children to be unaffected the most!
There has been talk of doing that.
Seems fairly straightforward; we (mankind) have intercepted comets “in the wild” on at least two occasions that I know of.
But, the question is, “Is it bigger than Broward County?”
Hey, where’s all the asteroid miners around here. Drop off the iron ore on the next pass.
Heh! I guess I misunderestimated how close that would be! It would be grazing the top of the Mesosphere ( where meteors burn up ... ) so you sure wouldn’t want it any closer.
Also, its predicted speed relative to earth during the encounter is 4 miles/sec, which is somewhat less than low-earth-orbit speed. This means to have a close approach, with this initial incoming speed, ( disregarding the atmosphere ) of 50 miles, its motion would be significantly affected by the earth, even though hyperbolic. So, this would be really really really close!
Maybe if you had said 500 miles, I would have been on a little firmer ground :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.