Asteroid 2004 FH

Spaceweather.com ^ | 3/18/2004 | NASA

[Orlando]

Newly-discovered asteroid 2004 FH is going to fly-by our planet TODAY, March 18th , 2200 GMT) 5:08 pm, est. only 43,000 km , which is only 26,500 miles from Earth.

[JoeFromSidney]

Check out this web site for information on defending the planet against killer asteroids: http://www.homeplanetdefense.org/

Marti Schwab, of Home Planet Defense Institute, will speak on this topic at the Engineers Club in Dayton, Ohio on April 22nd, 7 PM. Free and open to the public. Anyone in the area is welcome.

[MississippiMan]

Clinton almost inflicted socialized medicine on the US, which would have not only imperiled the lives of Americans, but all the other socialized medicine slaves in other countries who come to the US for treatment.

I most certainly don't dispute that Clinton wrought horrible damage. Nor do I doubt that similar damage will be wrought by Kerry. But to compare either to the instant or near-instant death of a couple hundred million people (wiping out CONUS is what the original poster used for comparison) is inaccurate.

MM

[js1138]

Wow. 3 and a hair planetary diameters out. Every 2 years. At that rate I would expect one to hit us every 115 years or so.

Try 1908, Siberia.

Consider that two-thirds of the surface is ocean, which would mean the only evidence of such a hitg would be tidal waves. We might have no knowledge of the Siberian hit except for a few curious scientists. It wasn't even suspected of being a meteorite or comet until the 1950s.

[Euro-American Scum]

Isn't Clinton a lifetime member of the NRA? :-)

I think he burned his NRA Lifetime Membership card. You remember? Like burning his draft card?

[CygnusXI]

Argh..
Never thought of that!

Does anyone know the orbital frequency of this puppy?

[Joe Hadenuf]

I do not mean to belittle your concern, or you or others interested in these phenomena.

Well thanks for that. But the scope of my involvement here is more of interest than concern.

However, in reality there is not much we can do about one of these things. To be frank, and somewhat fatalistic, if it is going to hit, it is going to hit.

You think?

In reality Sola, we get hit all the time. It's nothing new.

However, I can, on a very limited basis, affect the outcome of politics. John Kerry being elected would be, in my opinion, every bit as devastating as an asteroid wiping out CONUS. So, I will focus my attention on diverting asteroid Kerry from impacting on the USA.

Thanks for the speech.

[jpsb]

Impact speed can vary but 45,000 mps to 60,000 mps are the norm. Density can vary too, ice, rock or metal? Since there is no vapor trail, ice it not at all likely and the thing might be very dense making the chances of an inpact with the surface more likely. But it is going to pass us bye, this time.

[Dead Dog]

They need a new rock to kiss.

[jpsb]

No, but it's orbit is mainly inside the earths orbit, so my guess would be about a year but that is only a guess.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Way to close. This thing is about 35 meters in diameter and would wreak havoc on any major city it happened to hit.

City? Try country or continent!

Not quite, a 30 meter asteroid would not destroy the country, or a continent. Like I said, if it struck in or near a big city, the destruction would be immense and one for the history books. The rest of the continent would survive quite nicely and have lots of breaking news to watch.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Observations of meteors show that they typically enter the earth's atmosphere with somewhat less than 44 km/sec velocity. The sum of the escape energy from the earth at the top of atmosphere plus escape energy from the sun at the distance of the earth's orbit ~ 44 km/sec.

[newgeezer]

Without your little flag-waving map picture, some of us almost didn't notice that post was yours. Whew, that was close. ;O)

[Mr. Mojo]

I prefer Mecca.

I'm tempted to say Dome of the Rock. ......It would sure give new meaning to the name of that place ;)

But unfortunately an asteroid of that size - 30m across - would damage too much of the surrounding area (in Jerusalem), so Mecca sounds good to me too.

[ngc6656]

Does anyone know the orbital frequency of this puppy?

The orbital period is about 252 days. This was prior to today's encounter. Today's close encounter will change the period by a degree that remains to be determined.

[Little_Fish_In_Big_Pond]

WOW!! Where's my camera and my vocation agent when I need them?...

If I had a chance I would go and look at it with the pair of binoculars :) Lucky you people, who will be able to see it! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to see something like this pass so close :)

[capitan_refugio]

Ever wonder why the moon has so many craters? Some of them seemingly fresh craters? Good thing we have an atmosphere. And too bad we won't be able to see this in the US.

[Little_Fish_In_Big_Pond]

WOW!! Where's my camera and my vocation agent when I need them?...

If I had a chance I would go and look at it with the pair of binoculars :) Lucky you people, who will be able to see it! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to see something like this pass so close :)

[capitan_refugio]

It doesn't matter if the asteroid hits the satellite, or the satellite hits the asteroid, it's going to be bad for the satellite!

[steveegg]

Nukes only count against non-hardened targets.

[Joe Hadenuf]

They discovered it monday night, not much time to evacuate a whole major city. I expect that the politicians would want to sit on it for a day or two, to figure out what they are going to do, but if it was targeted towards a major city, I'm sure it would leak out to the media and civilians.

I would *guess* that an impact of this size (30 meters on impact) would possibly be survivable outside of 10 miles, depending on natural protection, like hills, mountains, etc, and if a warning was given.

With a simple warning, one outside of the total death and destruction zone could at least find some easy, low lying protection and at least try and cover one self from the massive debris that would undoubltly rain down for several minutes, or more. It would be unbelieveable to witness an event like this from about 100 miles away. Even then, you would want a hole to quickly jump into after taking a fast glimpse.