Nasa video shows just how close asteroid will come to hitting Earth

DilayMailUK ^ | UPDATED: 10:11 EST, 8 February 2013

[BenLurkin]

U.S. space agency Nasa has released a frightening new video showing just how close a massive asteroid will come to slamming into the Earth next week.

There are just seven days left until the 150ft-wide, 130,000 ton asteroid buzzes past our planet so close its trajectory will take it inside the orbit of communications and weather satellites.

It will be the nearest known flyby for an object of this size. But scientists promise the threatening space rock come no nearer than 17,100 miles from Earth when it zips past next Friday.

'No Earth impact is possible,' said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

However, he added, its journey through space will bring it so close to our planet that stargazers from Eastern Europe to Australia will be able to see it with just a pair of binoculars.

[nanetteclaret]

***its trajectory will take it inside the orbit of communications and weather satellites***

Could this cause an EMP problem? Or mess up satellite communications or throw them off orbit?

[bigheadfred]

At the bottom of this page there is a list of known earth approaching objects for the next 30 days.

[RegulatorCountry]

Got my niece a lower-end but decent model telescope for Christmas. We had one when we were kids, some of my best memories involve being outside in chilly, clear weather, scanning the sky, looking at moon craters and roasting marshmallows. We lived out past the glow of the streetlights, but even that was muted compared to today. Those old bluish mercury vapor lights just didn’t interfere as much. Maybe blue spectrum actually is better than red for night lighting, who’d a thunk, lol.

[bigheadfred]

There isn’t a friggin thing we can do about it.

Didn't you watch the Superbowl halftime show? We now possess WADs (Weapons of Asteroid Destruction). Codenamed "Beyonce". We can fire a SUPERSTAR at those pesky asteroids...

PS: 'que sera sera' You sing better than her.

[Patriot Babe]

Sooooo what are the odds it hit Washington D.C. or the White Hut?

[USMCPOP]

Yep. Sometimes assteroids go away by themselves.

[pricilla]

"No Earth impact is possible"

Unless of course,someone put the decimal point in the wrong place....a common mistake among scientists..

[calex59]

'No Earth impact is possible,' said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Yeah, and the Titanic couldn't sink either. I worry when scientists make absolute statements such as this.

[mikrofon]

[Mad Dawgg]

"Nasa video shows just how close asteroid will come to hitting Earth"

Sooo "Hot Fudge Sundae" will be next Friday instead of the expected Tuesday...

(Ten geek points for anyone who gets the obscure literary reference.)

[sima_yi]

See #12, above. The first time I’ve seen the answer posted before the question.

[dr_lew]

It’s an entirely accurate representation from the POV of the asteroid, or rather a point very near it, which artificially positions itself to keep the object in front of the earth. The stars are accurately depicted, but are hard to identify. I dld’d the “Eyes on the Solar Sytem” NASA app, and it let’s you run this view as well as many others, with various controls available. This includes the ability to turn on constellation labels. At the end, Tucana, Phoenix, and Grus are in view!

[BenLurkin]

Nicely done.

[dfwgator]

[BenLurkin]

It’s not big enough for that.

[Harold Shea]

I’m gonna have to reread that novel to see how big

Niven made it

A little dated but keeps me reading till I fall asleep

with the book in my hand

[dr_lew]

Read "Lucifer's Hammer" - all of Niven and Pournelle's fictional astrophysicists were telling the media the exact same thing.

My wife read this, and it "affected her mind" as one says - i.e. it seemed real to her. I didn't read it, but I recall the jacket blurb, "The odds were one in a million, then they were one in a thousand, and then ..."

So from this, the authors accurately depicted NASA's procedure as we see it in action here, except the improved calculations in this fictional scenario went the wrong way.

[clearcarbon]

"'We don't have all the money in the world to do this kind of work' for tracking and potentially deflecting asteroids, said Lindley Johnson, an executive with the Near-Earth Object observations program in Washington."

Deflect? Deflect it with what? Spitballs?

[Ezekiel]

Then there is the Discovery channel video of a giant asteroid hitting the Earth, that some wit dubbed with the music Yakkity Sax.

Thanks for that link. Good stuff!

[Harold Shea]

For the people on the space station this may

be a bit of worry.

Gonna be interesting to see how this near miss

ends.Hope nothing but some good pics.