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More on Asteroid Toutatis Passing Earth Sept 29th, 2004
Space.Com ^ | Sept 28th, 2004 | Robert Britt

Posted on 09/28/2004 5:34:19 PM PDT by missyme

A minor rumor has hatched on the Internet that a large and deadly asteroid will strike Earth this fall. Bulletin board discussions cite a 63 percent chance of impact, while concerned readers have e-mailed SPACE.com wondering if it is true.

Astronomers know of no such impending doom.

The rumors are likely rooted in a real event, however. On Sept. 29, 2004 an asteroid the size of a small city will make the closest known pass of such a very large space rock anytime this century.

While not dangerous for now, asteroid Toutatis is incredibly strange. And scientists are quite familiar with it, having bounced radar off the tumbling stone on previous flybys to generate computer renderings of its weird shape and movement.

Toutatis looks something like a dumbbell hurtling awkwardly through space. It has a crazy rotation that makes normal days impossible. Scientists can't explain the shape or the spin, but they're eager to learn more in September when, during the close pass, even backyard skywatchers will be able to spot the asteroid.

Well known path

The orbit of Toutatis is pinned down with better precision than any other large asteroid known to cross Earth's orbit. Toutatis' 4-year trek around the Sun ranges from just inside the Earth's path out to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid visits us every four years.

This fall, it will zoom by our planet within a million miles, or about four times the distance to the Moon.

That's close by cosmic standards for an object that could cause global devastation. Toutatis hasn't been so near since the year 1353 and won't be that close again until 2562, NASA scientists have calculated. No other asteroid so large is known to have come so close in the past, though accurate tracking of space rocks is a fairly recent, high-tech skill that still leaves wide margins of error for many objects.

Toutatis is about 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide (4.6 by 2.4 kilometers).

Many smaller space rocks have passed by much closer, well inside the Moon's orbit. Other asteroids in the size range of Toutatis have surely navigated that window, too, but were unseen in eras when the skies were not scanned so fully as today.

And throughout history, several asteroids and comets have hit the planet. In fact, an object the size of Mars hit Earth when it was very young, creating the Moon, scientists believe. But experts say the odds of a major collision in any year are extremely small. Any other near-Earth asteroid as big as Toutatis would almost surely be spotted decades or centuries before any possible impact.

The prediction of any such event would make huge news rather than small rumors.

Not dangerous, just bizarre

Asteroid Toutatis, officially numbered 4179, was discovered by French astronomers in 1989. Researchers can't predict far enough into the future to rule out Toutatis ever slamming into Earth, so it is listed officially as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. NASA says it won't hit for at least the next six centuries.

Meanwhile, previous close approaches have allowed intriguing radar examinations of one of the oddest things in space.

"The vast majority of asteroids and all the planets spin about a single axis, like a football thrown in a perfect spiral," explains Scott Hudson of Washington State University. "But Toutatis tumbles like a flubbed pass."

The result is a lack of anything resembling a normal day or night on the giant, pockmarked space rock.

Instead of a fixed north pole, Toutatis' axis of rotation wanders around in two separate cycles of 5.4 and 7.3 Earth-days. Stars seen from any location on the asteroid "would crisscross the sky, never following the same path twice,'' Hudson says.

More study planned

Steven Ostro at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has, with Hudson, studied Toutatis via radar on previous flybys. Ostro told SPACE.com that the population of near-Earth asteroids -- hundreds bigger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) have been found in the past six years or so -- are now known to come in "a zoo of shapes." And there are other asteroids that don't rotate on a single, main axis.

"But Toutatis remains the only non-principal-axis rotator in the solar system whose shape and spin state are well defined," Ostro said. More radar observations this year will try to further refine the spin rate and orbit.

There is more to learn. For starters, scientists also can't yet say if Toutatis has a hard surface or a thick layer of loose dirt similar to the Moon.

"I'd very much like to know whether Toutatis' strange shape and ponderously slow, wobbly rotation are the result of collisional breaking apart or a gentle merger of the asteroid's two lobes, and when the responsible phenomena happened," Ostro said.

Answers to all these big questions might require an as-yet-unplanned visit.

"Because of the radar investigations, our physical characterization of Toutatis is the best we have for any Potentially Hazardous Asteroid," Ostro said. "But a spacecraft rendezvous could tell us a great deal more, and I would love to see this happen."

Looking both ways

On Sept. 29, backyard skywatchers on Earth can find Toutatis, providing they know where to look.

Toutatis won't be visible to the unaided eye. Ordinary binoculars should be sufficient for spotting it if the sky is clear and dark, says Alan Harris, of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO.

"However, to actually know what you're seeing, a small telescope would be useful," Harris says. That will allow you to detect the slow motion of Toutatis against background stars. The asteroid will appear as a point of light, much like a star. It is too far for surface details to be visible.

It's also interesting to ponder what Earth would look like form Toutatis. Ostro points out a simple relationship between the distance of Toutatis at this close approach and the size of the Moon. Toutatis will be four times farther than the Moon; the Moon is about ¼ the size of Earth.

"If you were on Toutatis and looked at Earth during the close approach, the Earth would look as large as the Full Moon does to us."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: asteroid; catastrophism; toutatis
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1 posted on 09/28/2004 5:34:19 PM PDT by missyme
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To: All

Isn't it possible for a peice of the Dumbell Size Asteroid coming apart striking earth? who knows maybe it will strike Mecca?


2 posted on 09/28/2004 5:39:07 PM PDT by missyme
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To: missyme
I remember in 1992, asteroid Toutatis, had it come 6 hours later, it would of hit Earth. Anyways, this asteroid will not hit us. Too bad, I won't be able to see it through my telescope. I have seen bright comets before and they are really cool. On January 7, 2005, Comet Machholz will be right by the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. A sight to see.
Comet Machholz.
3 posted on 09/28/2004 5:39:29 PM PDT by Ptarmigan (Proud rabbit hater and killer)
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To: Ptarmigan

You don't think a chunk of Asteroid could come off striking earth?


4 posted on 09/28/2004 5:42:28 PM PDT by missyme
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To: missyme

This asteroid won't hit Earth. There are plenty of asteroids out in our Solar System, known as Near Earth Object (NEO). Sometimes in the future, an asteroid or comet may hit Earth and have catastrophic results. That is where astronomers, professional and amateurs come in hand, looking for asteroids with telescopes and CCD cameras.


5 posted on 09/28/2004 5:45:51 PM PDT by Ptarmigan (Proud rabbit hater and killer)
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To: missyme

There is a movie of the astroid going by on www.spaceweather.com


6 posted on 09/28/2004 5:47:36 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: missyme

I vote for a large breakup and impact on Mecca, Medina, the Kaaba, Riyadh, Tehran, Falluja, Najaf, Damascas, the eastern part of Ottawa...and PARIS!


7 posted on 09/28/2004 5:49:25 PM PDT by Cornpone ((Aging Warrior))
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To: Cornpone

8 posted on 09/28/2004 5:51:45 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (I voted for Bush... before I voted for Bush.)
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To: missyme

I'm wearing clean underwear tomorrow.


9 posted on 09/28/2004 5:52:16 PM PDT by mlbford2 ("What self respecting man wears Spandex?" -- Zell Miller)
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To: missyme

If an asteroid like this does hit us, then all this worrying will have done us no good at all because we will all be dead.


10 posted on 09/28/2004 5:52:17 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (Hurricane Season is Over)
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To: SamAdams76

How will it affect the polls.


11 posted on 09/28/2004 5:52:46 PM PDT by mlbford2 ("What self respecting man wears Spandex?" -- Zell Miller)
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To: Conan the Librarian
And from that Web-Site A Harvest Moon Tonight!
12 posted on 09/28/2004 5:53:33 PM PDT by missyme
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To: mlbford2
How will it affect the polls.

Jimmy Carter will declare that all those killed by the asteroid would have voted for Kerry, but were disenfranchised.

13 posted on 09/28/2004 5:54:16 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (I voted for Bush... before I voted for Bush.)
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To: SlowBoat407

Thanks, I needed that...I love the smell of...in the morning...


14 posted on 09/28/2004 5:54:57 PM PDT by Cornpone ((Aging Warrior))
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To: SamAdams76

What do you think about the Red moon tonight and the earthquake volcanoe situation in Washington and California?


15 posted on 09/28/2004 5:55:08 PM PDT by missyme
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To: SlowBoat407

Are you going to check out the Moon tonight?


16 posted on 09/28/2004 5:55:50 PM PDT by missyme
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To: Cornpone
Not Falluja or Najaf, we have Marines there. Now, Paris..
17 posted on 09/28/2004 5:56:25 PM PDT by mnehring (cBS- Fourth Column, Fifth Estate, Disinformers)
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To: SlowBoat407

Does that mean the courts will order a chard count?


18 posted on 09/28/2004 5:56:26 PM PDT by Cornpone ((Aging Warrior))
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To: missyme

It's overcast here, the remnants of Jeanne. But thanks for the picture in the absence of a clear sky.


19 posted on 09/28/2004 5:56:52 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (I voted for Bush... before I voted for Bush.)
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To: missyme

Astronomers know of no such impending doom.

If they did, do you suppose they would tell us?


20 posted on 09/28/2004 5:57:01 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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