Posted on 01/24/2008 12:20:06 PM PST by NormsRevenge
An asteroid at least 500 feet long will make a rare close pass by Earth next week, but there is no chance of an impact, scientists reported Thursday.
The object, known as 2007 TU24, is expected to whiz by Earth on Tuesday with its closest approach at 334,000 miles, or about 1 1/2 times the distance of Earth to the moon.
The nighttime encounter should be bright enough for medium-sized telescopes to get a glimpse, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which tracks potentially dangerous space rocks.
However, next week's asteroid pass "has no chance of hitting, or affecting, Earth," Yeomans said.
An actual collision of a similar-sized object with Earth occurs on average every 37,000 years.
Spotted last October by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, 2007 TU24 is estimated to be between 500 feet and 2,000 feet long. The next time an asteroid this size will fly this close to Earth will be in 2027.
Scientists plan to point the Goldstone radar telescope in California and the Arecibo radar telescope in Puerto Rico at the asteroid and observe its path before and after its closest approach to Earth. Researchers will use instruments to measure its rotation and composition.
The 2007 TU24 rendezvous comes a day before another asteroid is projected to pass close to Mars.
Scientists have effectively ruled out a collision between the Red Planet and the asteroid 2007 WD5, estimating it will pass at a distance of more than 16,000 miles from the Martian surface. Initial observations of the Mars-bound asteroid put the odds of an impact at 1 in 25 before dropping to 1 in 10,000.
How I'd love to hear some of those callers.
I haven't heard that show in ages. I kind of miss it. ;-)
At what point does “chance” cease to be plausible?
1/100? 10E-1000? How about, given the number of stars in our galaxy divided by all the requirements for technological life, there should be .01 “earths” in our galaxy?
Could a person’s fingerprints form by chance at a crime scene? After all, it’s just a certain configuration of chemicals!
When infinite possibilities exist, no matter how absurd 10e10000 may sound, the existence of the number of combinations required to mathematically satisfy that probability can’t be denied.
Best tagline nomination!
Infinity does not guarantee that all outcomes will be realized.
Giving a monkey a typewriter and an infinite amount of time will not result in the monkey producing an exact copy of War and Peace. Your argument of infinite possibilities may show that it can’t be said to be impossible, yet I’m infinitely certain that I’m correct about the monkey’s limitations.;-)
True.
Nor does it deny to zero probability, even the most absurd-to-realise combination from occurring.
Actually, the universe has an edge, is finite and expanding from a single point in time and space. This has been observed due to the redshifts of the farthest stars.
It’s big, yes, but the conditions necessary for heavier element formation only existed for a “short” amount of time at the start. You can’t have intelligent life based on H & He alone.
I’ve done my research on this, read interviews with many leading cosmologists, many recent books and articles on the topic.
It can be logically proven that the concept of infinite can only exist in mathematics, but not in a physical sense.
(It’s a long proof, not suitable for a FR forum.)
Wait, you said that the universe has an edge.
If it has an edge, then what lies beyond this edge? More volume?
By definition, nothing. Just as there was nothing before the big bang.
What I was trying to ask is this: Let’s assume you are standing at the “edge” that you mentioned. What would you “see” if you looked outward?
If you’re seeing more space ahead, then it still means that the entire universe (not just the material universe) is infinite, and not just very big.
Yes, that itself is an absurdity there. Nothing. Empty space is still volume. What are the physical dimensions of that which is nothing? Unfathomable, right?
Wow that’s pretty close. Amazing we haven’t been hit in so long. We’re certainly blessed
~giggle~
yeah, must be just luck...
other parallel universes lie beyond ours
Here’s a decent article on it.
The sum up their ideas with a big “we don’t know”.
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/cosmo.html
***How about the moon? Is the moon in danger? ***
That would screw up tidal marsh fishing schedules.
If so, then more opportunities for the most absurd, to occur.
:^)
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