Football field-sized asteroid could hit Earth this year

An enormous asteroid with a diameter wider than a football field has a roughly one in 7,000 chance of hitting the Earth later this year. However, it's nothing to lose sleep over.

Known as asteroid 2006 QV89, the space rock, which has a diameter of 164 feet, could potentially hit the planet on Sept. 9, 2019, according to a list of the most concerning space objects compiled by the European Space Agency. The ESA has 2006 QV89 ranked fourth on its top ten list.

According to current modeling, it's likely that 2006 QV89, which is on the risk list but not the priority list, will pass Earth at a distance of more than 4.2 million miles. The ESA does note that the likelihood of its model being off is less than one-hundredth of one percent.

The space rock was discovered on August 29, 2006, by the Catalina Sky Survey.

Although extremely rare, asteroids have hit the planet previously and caused significant damage.

In 1908, there was an enormous explosion near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, that flattened roughly 770 square miles of forest, likely due to a meteorite. It is now known as the Tunguska event.

Over 100 years later, in an occurrence now known as the Chelyabinsk Event, a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere on February 15, 2013, over Russia and crashed. The damage from the explosion caused the damage to more than 7,200 buildings and resulted in nearly 1,500 injuries, though none of them were fatal.

NASA has recently expanded its planetary defense protocols, including last year's unveiling of a bold new plan to protect Earth.

Last June, NASA unveiled a 20-page plan that details the steps the U.S. should take to be better prepared for near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of the planet.

Lindley Johnson, the space agency's planetary defense officer, said at the time that the country "already has significant scientific, technical and operational capabilities" to help with NEOs, but implementing the new plan would "greatly increase our nation’s readiness and work with international partners to effectively respond should a new potential asteroid impact be detected.”

In addition to enhancing NEO detection, tracking and characterizing capabilities and improving modeling prediction, the plan also aims to develop technologies for deflecting NEOs, increasing international cooperation and establishing new NEO impact emergency procedures and action protocols.

According to a 2018 report put together by Planetary.org, there are more than 18,000 NEOs.

https://www.foxnews.com/scienc...sized-asteroid-earth


Here's an assist................

Diameter of 164', very small football field!

Wider .... Not longer. It'll crash for miles ....
Russia gets em all.
I believe a rock from one is worth millions....
Charlotte heard needs thinning !

Just kidding ...

quote:

Originally posted by walkinghorse:
Diameter of 164', very small football field!

You're supposed to measure the bottom too.

164’ in diameter is in the neighborhood of the impactor that created Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is about a mile in diameter and nearly 600 feet deep. That blast is estimated to have been between 20 and 40 megatons.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/scien...ringerstartpage.html

In all likelihood, it was larger when it entered the atmosphere and the remaining mass was the approximated size, but this one would do some tremendous damage if it hit an urbanized area.

quote:

Originally posted by walkinghorse:
Diameter of 164', very small football field!

Width of the field, not length. But yeah, it's poorly written.

OK, what's the map of California for?

flashguy

Targeting?

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:
An enormous asteroid ... has a roughly one in 7,000 chance of hitting the Earth later this year.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

In all likelihood, it was larger when it entered the atmosphere and the remaining mass was the approximated size, but this one would do some tremendous damage if it hit an urbanized area.

Depending on which urbanized area, it also could do some tremendous improvements.

Of that diameter, how much would break up and burn off in the atmosphere upon entry?

Well, shot placement is critical.

quote:

Here's an assist................

quote:

Well, shot placement is critical.

Forgot to put the giant Red X on San Francisco. Only real concern is the fallout pattern from all the human feces ejected into the atmosphere. It could create a poop-clear winter that could last decades.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Here's an assist................

quote:

Well, shot placement is critical.

Forgot to put the giant Red X on San Francisco. Only real concern is the fallout pattern from all the human feces ejected into the atmosphere. It could create a poop-clear winter that could last decades.

I’m not sure whether San Francisco or Sacramento would make a better target.

That's a relatively small one. The one that killed off the dinosaurs and most of the life on earth about 66 million years ago was about 6 miles in diameter and came in at 35-50,000 mph.


Link to original video: https://youtu.be/-uizSPXuTGY

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:this one would do some tremendous damage if it hit an urbanized area.

I'd like it to become one with Planet Earth somewhere between Bradford and Rotherham.

"will pass Earth at a distance of more than 4.2 million miles"

This one might be closer...

"God of Darkness" asteroid Apophis set for historic Earth flyby

https://www.earth.com/news/god...it-from-osiris-apex/

In five years, a giant asteroid — dubbed “Apophis” by scientists — will set the record for the largest near-Earth asteroid fly-by in history. Oh, how Science loves its scary mythological creatures (and its latin slang words for the male sexual organ). This time, in ancient Egyptian mythology, ‘Apophis’ was a serpent demon representing darkness, evil, and chaos.

But don’t you worry! They only named it after an evil demon of darkness and chaos for no reason. Officially, there is zero chance of a collision; and that’s the story and they are sticking to it. Decades ago when first identified, Apophis scored a 4 out of 10 on the potential collision index — the highest ever rated — but in 2004 they revised it down to zero. As the article calmly explained, “updated modelling demonstrated the possibility of impact with Earth was nearly zero.”

Models! In other words, a fancy guess.

Apophis has previously flown by our Blue Planet, creeping closer every time. Last time it looped past was in 2017, when it was 17 million kilometers away. This next time, on April 13th, 2029, it makes its biggest jump toward us and Apophis is now projected to come within 20,000 miles of Earth’s surface (the ground, not the outer edges of the atmosphere).

In space distances, twenty-thousand miles isn’t nearly as far as it sounds. At this close range, the giant rock will even pass inside the orbit of many of our satellites. For another comparison, 20,000 miles is less distance than one trip around the Earth. The story understatedly referenced Apophis’s “intriguingly close approach to Earth.”

Intriguing is one way of putting it.

Anyway, the news this week is that NASA has repurposed its also mythologically named rocket, OSIRIS-REX, which happened to have some fuel left in the tank after completing its previous mission. Osiris was the god of the afterlife; the ruler of Hades. NASA ordered OSIRIS to go take a look at the rapidly-approaching devil asteroid. Just for curiosity, just to see; they aren’t worried about anything.

Specifically, NASA is curious about how Earth’s gravity might affect the rock:

Of particular interest to scientists is "how the surface changes when interacting with Earth's gravity,” said Amy Simon, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in the NASA press release announcing the mission. "Apophis’s close encounter with Earth will change the asteroid’s orbit and the length of its 30.6-hour day,” said NASA.

I’m curious how Earth’s gravity will affect the giant rock, too. But remember, there is no chance of a collision. It’s totally safe:
image 16.png

Last year, they even ran a planetary defense drill focused on Apophis. But they only used the devilish asteroid as a “stand in” for some hypothetically more dangerous space rock. They used Apophis for no reason; they just like the name:

So, in summary: last year they ran a planetary defense exercise for Apophis, and this year they sent a rocket to meet, you might say intercept, Apophis on its way. I know this all sounds like a movie trailer, and we know what happens next, but once again: there is nothing to be worried about. Everything is fine. Plus we still have five years to go!

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com...ack&utm_medium=email

quote:

They only named it after an evil demon of darkness and chaos for no reason.

And I thought they named it after the evil Goa'uld system lord on Stargate SG-1.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Well, shot placement is critical.

I wonder what the MOA is on an asteroid?