Hefty Asteroid to Sweep Near Earth. (Almost a half mile wide. Can be Seen w/Binoculars)

Sky and Telescope ^ | Roger W. Sinnott

[Joe Hadenuf]

Well, if it's ultimatley gonna hit us, let it be Southern California.

I would prefer it hit your house instead. Hopefully when your home.

Fuck You

F with me lumberhead.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Where did you get that image?

[bribriagain]

The mother in that flick was played by Denise Crosby. One night I was in a chat room and she came on...totally pasted..apparently she had gotten into a spat with her beau. I kept the transcript.

[Elsie]

Somebody help me out here: we will be able to see an object a mere 1/2 mile across that is 333,000 miles away with a regular pair of binoculars??

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          radius circumference  degrees minutes seconds
miles 300,000.00  1,884,955.59 5,235.99 87.27      1.45
     
     
     
     
An object 1/2 mile wide then subtends =    0.687549354 of an arcsecond

 

The human eye at 20/20 can resolve = 14 arcseconds (http://www.hia.nrc.ca/moffatt/eng/whybig/whybig.html)

 

Aperature	Wavelength	Resolving Power (smaller number means finer detail)
7x10^-3m (human eye)	4x10^-7 m (Green light)	7x10-5 radians (14 seconds of arc)

 

 

Therefore, a magnification of about 20 will be needed to get it up to be able to be seen at all

[skateman]

Where would you like to meet?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Thanx Joe, can anyone here tell me the effect of a hit on the moon, could it impact the earth's orbit of whatever?

A hit on the Moon with an asteroid? If that's what you mean, it has been hit thousands of times. Some impact craters are over twenty miles wide and larger. It would take a truly gigantic asteroid to effect the moons orbit around earth, thus effecting the earth.

It would be an incredible show here on earth though.

[Elsie]

how such small objects can cause such massive worldwide devastation still remains beyond my comprehension....I just don't get it.

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MV²

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V(elocity) is REALLY big and M(ass) is mighty large as well!

[skateman]

My, My, My. You are a touchy one. I take back my aplogy of earlier. I hope that the fricking asteroid takes you and all of the left coast straight to he!!

[Elsie]

It would be an incredible show here on earth though.

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NIV Luke 21:25-26
25. "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
26. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

[bribriagain]

Wow, are you guys going out for a drink? Can I come along?

[skateman]

F with me lumberhead.

Naw thanks, I'd probably get a STD from you.

[Hammerhead]

I know WHAT happens, I just can't understand HOW it happens. I guess trying to understand the speed of the object is the same as trying to grasp the numerical significance of a trillion.

To the simpleton, ok, you got a mile-wide rock, it's clipping along say about a thousand miles an hour or so, it hits the earth, people 50 miles away feel a little shaking in the ground....no big deal. You hear about it on the 6 o'clock news. Right?

[skateman]

Nope, but I think I done had nuf of Mr. Hadenuf.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Joe--you obviously know more about this than me--but still: that light has to be pretty bright from 330,000 miles away with 50 mm binocs on a 1/2 mile object! I'm impressed...

Reflected sun light is the only answer I have. And I agree, it is pretty impressive to be able to see an object that small from that distance.

Maybe RightWhale can offer more of a logical answer.

[breakem]

thanx didn't have the comparison of this one with those what have hit already.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for your thoughtful and educational reply.

[Joe Hadenuf]

LOL! I think I figured out where you got that. Hehehe. Can you imagine seeing some thing like that coming in, horizontally across the sky, at a downward angle into the distance horizon, at about 20 miles a second. The choice of watching it, or digging a fast hole would be difficult.

[RightWhale]

HOW it happens

Maybe a comparison between an ordinary pistol bullet and a magnum rifle bullet would help. The impact from the magnum rifle bullet is many times what the pistol bullet is because of its much higher speed.

But then you look at the asteroid, and it is not only bigger, but moving a lot faster yet. The impact is not a simple collision. What happens is that the energy carried by the asteroid is absorbed at least partly by the atoms in both the ground and the asteroid. This means the solid ground and the solid asteroid are turned to gas. Very hot gas, and a lot of it. The atmosphere is loaded with all kinds of poisonous material other than oxygen and nitrogen, and various chemical reactions begin, none of them good for plants or animals. The amount of poisonous gas is so large that it spreads out over the entire planet, and it can kill everything that breathes, including plantlife. Even in the oceans. And then add in that the climate will be bad for several years, no summer, little sunlight reaching the ground. So first it's like breathing direct from the stovepipe of your woodstove with a roaring fire going, then it's like sloshing around in a mucky, cold ashheap, everywhere.

The one that whacked the dinosaurs was pretty bad, but there was one before that was even worse and came close to eliminating life from the planet.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Whoop, this was meant for you......

LOL! I think I figured out where you got that. Hehehe. Can you imagine seeing some thing like that coming in, horizontally across the sky, at a downward angle into the distance horizon, at about 20 miles a second. The choice of watching it, or digging a fast hole would be difficult.

[RightWhale]

I don't expect to see this object due to poor sky conditions locally. But even if you see it in binoculars, it will just be a dot, and not very bright. You will need excellent seeing. Good luck picking it out from the general stars.