Ping to post # 55.
Welcome your comments/observations.
Jakarta blast follows falling object sightings
Posted by Phsstpok to Strategerist; TNdandelion
On News/Activism 12/18/2004 10:45:00 PM CST · 16 of 16
It is clearly not proven, but not unreasonable to assume that this is a larger bit of debris from the passage of 3200 Phaeton, the asteroid credited as the source of the Geminid meteor shower that we've just been going through (peak was around 12/14).
Most meteor showers are thought to occur when the Earth passes through the debris trail left behind in a comet's orbit. 3200 Phaeton has been identified as the source in this case, but it has also been classified as an asteroid, not a comet. It is theorized that it used to be a comet and has just blown off all of it's volatiles, leaving only a rocky core. An alternative is that it is a normal rocky asteroid and the debris trail is the result of a collision with some other object.
In either case, it's likely that if this was an extra-planetary object crashing into the atmosphere and exploding that it was a bigger chunk of 3200 Phaeton's debris trail.
Comet Encke's debris trail, which we experience as the Beta Taurid meteor shower, is thought to be the source of the object that created the Tunguska blast in the early 1900s. Some pretty good work was done on the results of the explosion and calculating the path of the object that would have caused the observed results. The conclusion matches up with the direction of the Beta Taurid debris stream. At that point the debris stream is crossing Earth's orbit and "coming out of the sun." This resulted in an early morning... "orbital intercept," is about the only thing I can think of to call it. The object came screaming in out of the sunrise traveling across the Siberian sky until it exploded, they figure about 6 miles up. The explosion was heard for thousands of square miles and registered on seismographs thousands of miles away.
Depending on what it was made of, size estimates vary but average around 50 to 60 meters. Given the relative results (no observed damage from the event in Indonesia) the object this week was likely about the size of a lounge chair. Basketball size objects average one per month. 50 meter objects average one per 100 years. A barco lounger sized object therefore probably hits a couple of times per year.
Or it could be something else completely. I've heard that leaves have been canceled for our troops in Asia on short notice. Maybe it's related to some "deep impact" event and this is an early warning impact. Or, Kim Jung Il may be starting to take pot shots. Who knows?
I love the topic, though. Fire up the THEL and get the 747 flying laser airborne, fellas. There's incoming from somewhere out there!
SPACE.COM:
Small Asteroid Passes Between Satellites and Earth
Astronomers spotted an asteroid this week after it had flown past Earth on a course that took it so close to the planet it was below the orbits of some satellites.
The space rock was relatively small, however, and would not have posed any danger had it plunged into the atmosphere.
The object, named 2004 YD5, was about 16 feet (5 meters) wide, though that's a rough estimate based on its distance and assumed reflectivity. Had it entered the atmosphere, it would have exploded high up, experts figure.
Satellite territory
The asteroid passed just under the orbits of geostationary satellites, which at 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) altitude are the highest manmade objects circling Earth. Most other satellites, along with the International Space Station, circle the planet at just a few hundred miles up.
2004 YD5 is the second closest pass of an asteroid ever observed by telescope, according to the Asteroid/Comet Connection, a web site that monitors space rock discoveries. The closest involved a rock that flew by last March and was not announced until August.
2004 YD5 was discovered Tuesday, Dec. 21 by Stan Pope, who volunteers his time to examine images provided by the FMO (Fast Moving Object) project, an online program run by the University of Arizona's Spacewatch Project. After the initial detection, other observers noted the object's position during the day and its path was then calculated back. Closest approach occurred on Dec. 19.
The rock approached Earth from near the Sun and so would have been nearly impossible to detect prior to close passage. It soared over Antarctica -- underneath the planet, Washington State University researcher Pasquale Tricarico told the Asteroid/Comet Connection.
(Extract, click title for article)
We may have been in a bit of a shooting gallery last week. I wonder how many more objects either scooted by or burned up over uninhabited areas or ocean? Hope it's over.