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Good News Everyone! There are Fewer Deadly Undiscovered Asteroids than we Thought
Universe Today ^ | 10/20/2017 | Matt Williams

Posted on 10/21/2017 2:32:42 PM PDT by BenLurkin

[P]revious estimates of the remaining NEAs have been plagued by a consequential round-off error that have skewed the results.

The source of this error has to do with... “size-frequency distribution”.

...

2015 study conducted by Harris and D’Abramo – which appeared in Icarus under the title “The population of near-Earth asteroids” – yielded an estimate of 990 NEAs that were larger than 1 km in diameter. However, Tricario’s study (“The near-Earth asteroid population from two decades of observations“, also published in Icarus), which was based on the opposite “less than or equal to” assumption, produced estimates that were 10% lower.

As Harris explained, this prompted D’Adramo and him to considered a different approach. “We corrected the problem for the current analysis by choosing bin boundaries at .05 magnitudes, e.g. 17.25 to 17.75, so the 0.1 round-off thresholds naturally put objects in the right bin,” he said. “When Tricarico and I each made these corrections, our population estimates fell into almost perfect agreement.”

After applying the correction, Harris and D’Abramo’s overall estimate of undiscovered NEAs dropped from 990 to 921 ± 20. Beyond allowing for consistency between different studies, these corrected estimates also reduced the total number of undiscovered objects that remain undiscovered. According to the latest tallies from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 884 NEAs that are about 1 km in diameter have been discovered so far.

Based on the previous population estimate of 990 objects, this implied that the current surveys are 89% complete and 106 were yet to be found. When the corrections were applied to these numbers, JPL’s surveys now appears to be 96% complete, and only 37 objects remain to be found (almost three times less). Naturally, these new estimates depends on their own sets of assumptions, and different results can be obtained based on different criteria.

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


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 10/21/2017 2:32:42 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Crap. Now the Algore Loser crowd will go back to pimping “global warming” harder than ever.


2 posted on 10/21/2017 2:35:40 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Has Sheila JACKSON LEE changed her name yet?)
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To: BenLurkin

A. It only takes one.

B. There are likely plenty of unknown unknown classes.

C. See A.


3 posted on 10/21/2017 2:37:22 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: BenLurkin

There is a relation between frequency and size.
As Ted Danson put it, “It was like throwing a
hot dog down a hallway.”


4 posted on 10/21/2017 2:38:22 PM PDT by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
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To: Paladin2

It’s like a I used to tell my kids. A scientific pronouncement is only valid until the next scientific pronouncement on the same subject comes a long.


5 posted on 10/21/2017 2:38:57 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: sparklite2
As Ted Danson put it, “It was like throwing a hot dog down a hallway.

Did he say that when he was dating Whoopi?

6 posted on 10/21/2017 2:39:48 PM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: BenLurkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRCzEqkCoiM


7 posted on 10/21/2017 2:40:07 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools. Go Trump!)
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To: BenLurkin

But then it only takes one.


8 posted on 10/21/2017 2:40:16 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: BenLurkin

“reduced the total number of undiscovered objects that remain undiscovered.

How does one do that? Reduce the estimate perhaps.


9 posted on 10/21/2017 2:40:24 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: BookmanTheJanitor

Bingo.


10 posted on 10/21/2017 2:42:44 PM PDT by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
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To: BenLurkin

If they’re unknown, then how do we know there are fewer?


11 posted on 10/21/2017 2:44:24 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: BenLurkin

Did the global warming kill them or did they run away from the threat of EMP?


12 posted on 10/21/2017 2:45:18 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (Asking a pro athlete for political advice is like asking a cavalry horse for tactical advice.)
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To: Bryanw92; Lazmataz

Did the global warming kill them or did they run away from the threat of EMP?


They saw that Lazmataz had already hit it.


13 posted on 10/21/2017 2:49:11 PM PDT by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
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To: BenLurkin

I can now sleep more soundly.


14 posted on 10/21/2017 2:52:37 PM PDT by Parmy
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To: BenLurkin

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.


15 posted on 10/21/2017 2:57:20 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: GingisK

Good point.

Without evidence of existence there’s no reason to suppose something exists.


16 posted on 10/21/2017 3:00:59 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: JimSEA

How does one do that?
_____________________________________________

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence?

I mean, if we don’t know they’re there, they can’t exist, right?


17 posted on 10/21/2017 3:08:55 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Grimmy

Yep, just like those Kraut tanks that keep busting out of the Ardennes when everyone says there is no evidence of anything unusual in there.


18 posted on 10/21/2017 3:19:56 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: BenLurkin

The good news is that there are fewer asteroids.

The bad news is that that’s because the Zycathian Invasion Fleet blasted most of them to clear a path to earth.


19 posted on 10/21/2017 3:28:47 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: GingisK

Back in the day, that did happen often enough to be considered a predictable pattern.


20 posted on 10/21/2017 3:32:30 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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