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Huge asteroid to fly past Earth (Toutatis hoax - how and why)
space.com ^
| 04/09/29
Posted on 09/29/2004 5:00:09 AM PDT by Truth666
HOW - 1. "actually you will not be able to see it ... "
Spotting Toutatis
Toutatis will not be visible to the unaided eye. Experienced telescope users can see it now from the Southern Hemisphere, and in early October it will be visible from the north.
Finding Toutatis will be challenging, Harris said, due to a combination of the asteroid's position in the sky and interfering moonlight.
Because the asteroid is so close, its location in the sky will vary significantly for skywatchers in different places on Earth at any given moment. And because it moves quickly, the location changes constantly. Printed sky maps don't always provide enough detail to be useful.
"In a large telescope the motion would be perceptible against any stars in the field more or less in real time, sort of like watching the second hand on a clock," Harris said, adding that the movement would be "not quite that fast, but noticeable."
Highly experienced observers will use complex plotting information known as ephemeris data. Others can use software programs that generate maps for specific times and locations.
At its closest on September 29, Toutatis will be visible only to observers in the Southern Hemisphere.
Large and steady binoculars will be able to pick out the pinprick of sunlight reflecting off the asteroid, providing observers "use a good program like Starry Night Pro to plot its incredibly rapid motion across the sky," said Clay Sherrod of the Arkansas Sky Observatory. (The software company Starry Night is owned by Imaginova, parent also of SPACE.com.)
Soon thereafter, experienced backyard astronomers north of the equator will have a chance to find Toutatis.
"By early October, it will suddenly be re-emerging into northern skies as its apparent trajectory will bring it back into very favorable view," Sherrod said in an e-mail interview. But by then the asteroid will be moving away from Earth and getting dimmer. It will quickly become "very difficult" to spot even with an 8-inch telescope, he said.
HOW - 2. "... but we already saw it "
Sherrod photographed the giant space rock last week (it was visible then in the north through large telescopes) and said exposures longer than eight seconds showed a trail as the giant rock moved slightly against the background of stars.
"It has been quite a wonderful show so far," he said.
HOW / WHY - "we know all about what's going on around us - even about the weirdest, smallest body"
Asteroid Toutatis was discovered in 1989. Scientists have modeled its strange rotation and odd shape -- it looks something like a pockmarked dumbbell -- on previous flybys.
Instead of a fixed north pole, Toutatis' axis of rotation wanders in two separate cycles of 5.4 and 7.3 Earth-days. So while most asteroids rotate somewhat like a football thrown in a perfect spiral, "Toutatis tumbles like a flubbed pass," says Scott Hudson of Washington State University.
Astronomers will use this week's flyby to examine Toutatis in greater detail, with a goal of pinning down the rock's rate of spin and better estimating its future path.
WHY - "relax, nothing is going to happen here, at least in your life time"
While some rumors have suggested the asteroid's forecasted course might be off by enough to cause a collision with Earth, Sherrod agrees with Harris and other scientists that there is no chance for calamity. Sherrod has been monitoring Toutatis' movement since July 3, logging more than 500 observations that allow mapping of a precise trajectory.
"Although the actual path of it has indeed varied a slight bit from the original calculated, there is absolutely no chance of a physical encounter or impact with Earth," he said.
TOPICS: Astronomy; Conspiracy; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: asteroid; astronomy; catastrophism; comet; cometbradfield; comets; prozacchewables; science; space; tinfoilhat; toutatis
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To: Dave S
So what was the hoax and who was the hoaxer?
Hoax : it's possible to predict when a meteor the size of "Toutatis" is going to pass near the earth.
Hoaxers : who ever claims that he has proof of that.
41
posted on
09/29/2004 9:14:13 AM PDT
by
Truth666
To: Truth666
Hoax : it's possible to predict when a meteor the size of "Toutatis" is going to pass near the earth. Hey dude, Toutatis is an aesteroid, not a meteor. Meteors are small pieces of space debries that have entered the earths atmosphere and burns up. Toutatis has an orbit. This is not the first time Toutatis has passed the earth. They can track it like any other body in space. They know its current position, its current heading and speed. Unless you are saying that its propelled by a rocket that is going to increase its speed or change its direction, why cant they predict when its going to pass near earth? Is your area of expertise astrophysics? I think not. What televangelis convinced you this is a hoax and that you are going to be raptured out today during the beginning of the rapture?
42
posted on
09/29/2004 9:20:37 AM PDT
by
Dave S
To: Dave S
Meteor = asteroid, if you wish
43
posted on
09/29/2004 9:27:09 AM PDT
by
Truth666
To: Truth666
Bradford originally started out at near ZERO - do you have a link to a table with a chronology of "distance to" and "size from" Bradfield, to check "how much did Bradfield grow" ? the strange shape of Toutatis comes from radar studies of the comet by RADAR How does that work ? What equipment is used ? Now you are just beint tedious. I refer you to http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov, from which you can learn how comets start out as small, frozen bodies on parabolic orbits that pass near the sun, which volitalizes them, creatig a coma and large visual size. The radar studies used a variety of equipment, including Arecibo and the Deep Space Network. You can write NASA if you need the exact model numbers. The visual studies from a variety of professional and amateur observers were used to verify the radar observations. You are obviously baiting us objective types. And you think you are mastering it.
44
posted on
09/29/2004 9:33:12 AM PDT
by
Turk82_1
(They also serve who merely stand and wait.)
To: Truth666
I refer you to
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/, where you can learn all about how Near Earth Objects are detected, their obits plotted, and the various uncertainties attendant on these orbits.
True, they aren't exactly as regular as the downtown bus, but they are darn close. Now, I want you to tell me why it is NOT possible to predict an orbit.
45
posted on
09/29/2004 9:44:24 AM PDT
by
Turk82_1
(They also serve who merely stand and wait.)
To: Truth666
Meteor = asteroid, if you wish No, it's not if you wish. It is a fundamental error - an asteroid may become a meteor when it enters the Earth's atmosphere, but a meteor cannot become an asteroid. It is just like your desire to believe an ephemeral phenomenon like a cometary coma being equal to a solid body of identical size - you refuse to incorporate definitions, facts, and observations by astronomers that conflict with your worldview. It's that fundamental willful ignorance about astronomy that dooms you haox thesis.
46
posted on
09/29/2004 10:22:39 AM PDT
by
Turk82_1
(They also serve who merely stand and wait.)
To: Turk82_1
I refer you to http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/, where you can learn all about how Near Earth Objects are detected, their obits plotted, and the various uncertainties attendant on these orbits.
Sorry, but the only thing I learned was that a Photoshop-like program was used to depict the only "asteroid" shown in that site ...
47
posted on
09/29/2004 10:44:48 AM PDT
by
Truth666
To: Truth666
48
posted on
09/29/2004 10:59:16 AM PDT
by
Rebel_Ace
(Tags?!? Tags?!? We don' neeeed no stinkin' Tags!)
To: ValerieUSA; blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; PatrickHenry
Toutatis isn't a hoax, it was discovered in 1989, it is going to pass less than a million miles from the Earth, and 10s of 1000s of non-planetary objects are known. George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
49
posted on
09/29/2004 1:38:51 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
To: SunkenCiv
Your tag : "All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen."
In June we all have seen, as predicted, the Venus transit.
When have you seen an asteroid the size of "Toutatis", as predicted, pass by ?
50
posted on
09/29/2004 2:11:31 PM PDT
by
Truth666
To: Rebel_Ace
And now I depart this thread, as you cannot teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and annoys the pig. (I just love Mark Twain)
:'D well said. :') Although you realize that Mark Twain was hoaxed by the Piso family as part of their sinister plot (in concert with the Elders of Sion) to justify control of all world resources under the guise of the WTO. They're the ones behind the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax. ;'D George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
51
posted on
09/29/2004 2:12:20 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
To: Rebel_Ace; All
I thought we were dîscussing asteroids .... I mean, I don't mind discussing comets, if you find one with the "visibility" of "Toutatis" ...
52
posted on
09/29/2004 2:29:42 PM PDT
by
Truth666
To: Truth666
Actually "we" weren't. You aren't discussing anything. And yes, 10s of 1000s of asteroids are known. Bye. George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
53
posted on
09/29/2004 2:39:02 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
To: All
54
posted on
09/29/2004 3:55:55 PM PDT
by
Truth666
I didn't notice before that "truth666" claimed that Comet Bradfield (the 18th discovered by Bill Bradfield, as it turns out) had a diameter of 10,000 km.
http://www.fg-kometen.de/C2004F4/04f4eaus.htm
"the absolute coma diameter measured 40.000 - 80.000 km when the comet emerged in the morning sky, reaching 400.000 km at maximum, decreasing to 150.000 km at the end of June" with a tail of 22 million miles max.
A diameter of 10,000 km would be over 6200 miles. While the coma (the bright ice-to-vapor material that boils out of the comet nucleus) was very large indeed, if a celestial body 3/4ths the diameter of Earth had loped through the inner solar system, even the election coverage would have been on the back burner. Nothing of that kind happened.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_common.htm
Now, back to our regularly scheduled mental health crisis.
55
posted on
12/26/2004 10:54:04 AM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(There's nothing new under the Sun. That accounts for the many quotes used as taglines.)
To: RightWhale
56
posted on
06/10/2005 1:46:28 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
To: SunkenCiv
truth666--somewhat combative. Perhaps made a distasteful comment?
57
posted on
06/10/2005 2:03:17 PM PDT
by
RightWhale
(I know nothing, and less every day)
To: RightWhale
58
posted on
06/10/2005 2:18:06 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
To: SunkenCiv
I wondered why we had a shortage of kook threads lately.
59
posted on
06/10/2005 2:23:53 PM PDT
by
Dog Gone
60
posted on
06/10/2005 3:02:02 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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