Sky-watchers in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands welcomed a surprise guest earlier today: an asteroid that passed just 41,010 miles (66,000 kilometers) above Earth.
Discovered only days ago, asteroid 2009 DD45 zipped between our planet and the moon at 13:44 universal time (8:44 a.m. ET). The asteroid was moving at about 12 miles (20 kilometers) a second when it was closest to Earth.
“We get objects passing fairly close, or closer than this, every few months,” Timothy Spahr, director of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts, said in an email.
“Also, though, note these are only the ones that are discovered. Many more pass this close undetected”—as asteroid 2009 DD45 nearly did.
Astronomers didn’t notice the oncoming asteroid until February 28, when it showed up as a faint dot in pictures taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
#59, Bobbo,
Gosh, I would certainly hope that has been within our capability for years? No evasive manuevers or change of course from a meteor. All thats needed is radar guidance and a proximity fuse. Simple, No?
It sure sounds simple. In fact, these things are usually traveling quite fast by our relative standards. For the Temple 1 comet I mentioned above, what NASA did, after years of thought, was position the space craft in the expected path of the comet. The comet was moving at about 23,000 MPH faster and came up from behind the craft and literally ran it over. (sort of like a Republican slowing down the Stimulus package
)
A big question would be, how much time do they have to program the missile to impact the meteor and from what direction is it coming.
Since we usually pick these up by seeing sunlight reflected off of them, we didn’t see this one until it was near our moon. It was just too small. At those distances, radar is ineffective as any reflection is spread over too large an area.
61–fusion==something in the time line isn’t adding up. the OP says we had 24-48 hours notice of this meteor. So–we launch a rocket in the KNOWN path of the meteor, use radar just to fine tune the approach and to gauge distance and set the bomb off. I don’t think the meteors speed is very difficult for doppler radar to measure. I doubt the rocket would actually be on an actual collision with the meteor but even that might damage the meteor enough or change its course enough to “save” the earth.
If we can land on Mars, I see no trick here at all as long as we remember which measuring system we are using?
#62, Bobbo,
I could be wrong. The problem is the distances. Using radar at those distances doesn’t work. First the meteors aren’t very reflective, second you are spreading the return over hundreds of thousands of miles. On earth, long range radar is only a few hundred miles.
Maybe NASA or the Air Force has some method they haven’t told us about. But, as far as I know, currently meteor detection is almost all done by visual observation and comparing pictures from one day to the next to see if one spot of light has moved.
Hey, I wish we could lock on when they are still 1,000,000 miles away, but I don’t think it is feasible at this time.
This is what happens when you elect a black president. Doesn’t anybody learn the lessons of Hollywood movies?
The president is always black when earth gets hit by an asteroid!
That would not have killed us all! To everyone out there who would like to know the truth on allot of things, please go to my website at http://www.seek4thetruth.com if there is a planet you should be scared of, it is Planet Nibiru which is on its way and will cause major earth destruction! And then some.
hey guys. im a virgin and i love to read blogs about asteroids and comment on them! gee its dandy! @(o)_(o)@ look i made a monkey!!! yay!