Whew, folks! Looks like we're surviving another brush with interstellar death. Nothing like a little smashy smashy to shake things up a bit.
From The Irish Independent this morning:
Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? No, It's a Giant Asteroid
AN ASTEROID up to half a mile wide is due to brush past Earth early today, approaching almost as close as the moon.
In astronomical terms, that counts as a near miss. But scientists who had been tracking the path of asteroid 2004 XP14 were not worried.
They knew that the space rock, travelling at 17 kilometres per second, would not hit Earth. Nevertheless, 2004 XP14 has been classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, along with 782 known others.
The object, discovered in December 2004, is one of a class of "Apollo" asteroids whose orbits cross that of Earth.
Initially, there were concerns that the asteroid might collide with Earth later this century. However, further analysis of its orbit has ruled this out - at least for the foreseeable future.
If XP14 did hit Earth the effects would be devastating. "It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country," said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory.
"At least we knew about this asteroid. We should be more worried about the unknown ones. There are quite a lot of them flying around out there that are still to be discovered."
Scientists hope to gather valuable information about the asteroid by bouncing radar signals off it from the Goldstone dish - with a diameter of 230ft - in California's Mojave desert.
Although the object's size is not precisely known, it is thought to range between 1,345ft and 3,018ft - between a quarter and just over half a mile wide.
"Pinging" it with radar will allow astronomers to plot future orbits much more accurately. It may also help them to determine the rock's shape.
"Usually an asteroid is just a dot seen through a telescope," said Dr Asher. "The real science here is using good radar observations to work out what shape the asteroid is. You might also be able to tell something about its surface."
The asteroid was expected to make its closest approach to Earth at 05.25 today. At that moment it will be 268,624 miles away - or just 1.1 times the moon's average distance from Earth - but not big enough to see with the naked eye.
John von Radowitz
From The Irish Independent this morning:
Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? No, It's a Giant Asteroid
AN ASTEROID up to half a mile wide is due to brush past Earth early today, approaching almost as close as the moon.
In astronomical terms, that counts as a near miss. But scientists who had been tracking the path of asteroid 2004 XP14 were not worried.
They knew that the space rock, travelling at 17 kilometres per second, would not hit Earth. Nevertheless, 2004 XP14 has been classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, along with 782 known others.
The object, discovered in December 2004, is one of a class of "Apollo" asteroids whose orbits cross that of Earth.
Initially, there were concerns that the asteroid might collide with Earth later this century. However, further analysis of its orbit has ruled this out - at least for the foreseeable future.
If XP14 did hit Earth the effects would be devastating. "It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country," said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory.
"At least we knew about this asteroid. We should be more worried about the unknown ones. There are quite a lot of them flying around out there that are still to be discovered."
Scientists hope to gather valuable information about the asteroid by bouncing radar signals off it from the Goldstone dish - with a diameter of 230ft - in California's Mojave desert.
Although the object's size is not precisely known, it is thought to range between 1,345ft and 3,018ft - between a quarter and just over half a mile wide.
"Pinging" it with radar will allow astronomers to plot future orbits much more accurately. It may also help them to determine the rock's shape.
"Usually an asteroid is just a dot seen through a telescope," said Dr Asher. "The real science here is using good radar observations to work out what shape the asteroid is. You might also be able to tell something about its surface."
The asteroid was expected to make its closest approach to Earth at 05.25 today. At that moment it will be 268,624 miles away - or just 1.1 times the moon's average distance from Earth - but not big enough to see with the naked eye.
John von Radowitz
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
shellymc:
stop freaking me out...
brandi77:
Murphey's Law applies to all things - shower slashers, hidden cameras, and giant rocks hurtling towards Earth.