Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Asteroid 2005 YU55 Passes the Earth

NASA ^ | November 09, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

It's probably a radar image, and it could even be the same radar image (taken from Arecibo) that previously appeared in of those earlier topics linked above. :') @BL, there's probably stuff up already, let's see...

• asteroid.jpg?1305100057 [nice]
• asteroid-2005-YU55.jpg [okay]
• Asteroid-2005-YU55-jpg.jpg [round, so probably incomplete]
• Video of Asteroid 2005 YU55 -- - The Washington Post This video shows a composite of still images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 taken by a group from Wellesley College's astronomy department as it passed last night. (Nov. 9) (/Wellesley College's Whitin Observatory) [I found nothing on the Whitin website itself, maybe more later?]

There was also one image search hit that, in thumbnail, looked exactly like the asteroid Gaspra. And, it turned out to be Gaspra. And the caption said "2005 YU55". That's just good editing.

[SunkenCiv]

Wow! A little jealous...

[SunkenCiv]

It might generate a tsunami as well, but my uneducated guess is that a lot of the energy would be expressed as vaporization of the water (and the object), leading to powerful storms, widespread blackout, and massive precipitation.

[SunkenCiv]

Definitely. The 1976 rock made it into a really crappy novel, I think it was called “Asteroid” (took ‘em months to come up with the title), and it wasn’t any 27 years later. So, maybe it was a different big close call. So yeah, it probably happens all the time. The smaller ones are of less concern, but it’s a bit daunting to realize that this thing is a quarter mile in diameter, and has been just missing us very few years for maybe millions of years, and wasn’t even spotted until 2005. :’)

The things that hit the Earth from time to time are probably nearly 100% nearby on a regular basis, and, like the old Spirograph toy, after enough cycles, our paths cross. A big interloper from waaaay out, or one just passing through the Solar System, could of course hit the Earth, but the odds are vanishingly small.

[SunkenCiv]

whoops, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2804703/posts?page=24#24

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

Bamboozled again!!! The second link leads to a pic of the asteroid Ida, and it too is captioned as if it’s 2005 YU55. Sorry, that was pretty slipshod of me.

[colorado tanker]

Hmmm. That’s a toughie. Would liberals blame global warming or George Bush for that?

[brytlea]

Wow!

[brytlea]

LOL oh well. :)

[JoeProBono]