Monster Asteroid 'Pinged' As It Buzzes Earth

Discovery News ^ | Tue Nov 6, 2012 03:15 PM ET | Ian O'Neill

[BenLurkin]

Over three days, Goldstone "pinged" a 1.6-kilometer (1-mile) wide asteroid that approached our planet from Oct. 28 to Oct. 30. The huge space rock, called 2007 PA8, was 9 million kilometers (5.6 million miles) from Earth on Oct. 30. It made closest approach on Nov 5. (Monday), coming within 17 times the Earth-moon distance (4 million miles or 6.5 million kilometers).

Although the orbit of 2007 PA8 is well known and is not considered a threat to Earth in the near-term, it is classified as a "near-Earth asteroid." NASA took the opportunity to grab these invaluable radar observations of the asteroid as this is the closest the space rock will come to Earth for the next 200 years.

In these images -- a result of radio waves (emitted from the Goldstone antenna) reflected off the asteroid's surface -- the irregular shape of the object can be easily seen. Also, ridges and (possibly) craters are evident. The asteroid has a rotational period of 4 hours and these observations are of 2007 PA8's north pole.

[BenLurkin]

[GeronL]

Kinda sad that this was the best image we could get right now

[MarineBrat]

My theory is that asteroids are made of potatoes.

[JusPasenThru]

Obama’s NASA? Launching turds into space?

[JRandomFreeper]

14 light seconds out? That's fairly close.

/johnny

[American Constitutionalist]

" asteroids are made of potatoes."

Asteroid Space Potatoe Sticks... the taste is out of this world.

[BenLurkin]

If that hit Earth....it would be a rough time for anyone who survives.

[Celtic Conservative]

Odd you should mention that, because that's what ILM used to represent asteroids in a couple of scenes of "The Empire strikes back".

CC

[JRandomFreeper]

If one that size hit earth it likely trigger a global extinction event.

I prep, and my preps are good. But I didn't including any orbital spacecraft in my preps.

/johnny

[RichInOC]

Okay, set it to “stune” and try again.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks GeronL for the ping, thanks BenLurkin for the topic.

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[bgill]

Anyone know a site where I could check to see if there was a meteorite that hit near me a few nights ago?

[bigheadfred]

Kinda sad that this was the best image we could get right now

I think it is a miracle we can see the SOB at all.

[GeronL]

probably true

[El Laton Caliente]

Survivors?

The north slope oil crew and the science expedition to the south pole?

[BenLurkin]

A self-suffient moonbase would be one answer. If people don't mind these kind of living quarters...