Huge asteroid to buzz Earth in November

This should prove interesting to earthquake scientists who believe the moon has influence on the timing of earthquakes. I just looked it up and we'll also be experiencing a "full moon" on November 10th according to http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/.

Wonder if it will also cause the tide tables to shift a bit.

I'm not sure I have a problem with a catastrophic event wiping the world of humans.

I would prefer it didn't happen, but if God has invested all in humanity, it won't happen, and if he has spreatd his essence throughout the universe then it will not matter.

The object will be roughly a the same distance as the moon and is tiny compare to the moon so without doing the math my guess would be if gravity force on the earth would be .00000001 percent of the moon tide forces so no earthquakes.

This is true. I forgot to take the size of the thing into consideration.

There will be a smaller one coming within 7500 miles of the earth real soon now.
http://4warnwxteam.com/2011/06/25/asteroid-passing-close-to-earth-monday/

You're link is misbehaving Mesquite... at least with my work computer.

Thanks for the heads up M!
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0624/School-bus-sized-asteroid-to-hurtle-past-Earth-Monday-morning

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1104/Asteroid-2005-YU55-will-buzz-the-Earth-next-week

Quarter-mile-wide asteroid coming close to Earth
By Marcia Dunn
AP Aerospace Writer / November 5, 2011

This image made from radar data taken in April 2010 by the Arecibo Radar Telescope in Puerto Rico and provided by NASA/Cornell/Arecibo shows asteroid 2005 YU55. The asteroid, bigger than an aircraft carrier, will dart between the Earth and moon Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 - the closest encounter by such a huge rock in 35 years. But scientists say not to worry. It won't hit. This image made from radar data taken in April 2010 by the Arecibo Radar Telescope in Puerto Rico and provided by NASA/Cornell/Arecibo shows asteroid 2005 YU55. The asteroid, bigger than an aircraft carrier, will dart between the Earth and moon Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 - the closest encounter by such a huge rock in 35 years. But scientists say not to worry. It won't hit.

(AP Photo/NASA/Cornell/Arecibo) Photo: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-quarter-mile-wide-asteroid-earth.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—An asteroid bigger than an aircraft carrier will dart between the Earth and moon on Tuesday -- the closest encounter by such a huge rock in 35 years.

But scientists say not to worry. It won't hit.

"We're extremely confident, 100 percent confident, that this is not a threat," said the manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program, Don Yeomans. "But it is an opportunity."

The asteroid named 2005 YU55 is being watched by ground antennas as it approaches from the direction of the sun. The last time it came within so-called shouting distance was 200 years ago.

Closest approach will occur at 6:28 p.m. EST Tuesday when the asteroid passes within 202,000 miles of Earth. That's closer than the roughly 240,000 miles between the Earth and the moon.

The moon will be just under 150,000 miles from the asteroid at the time of closest approach.

Both the Earth and moon are safe -- "this time," said Jay Melosh, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University.

If 2005 YU55 were to plow into the home planet, it would blast out a crater four miles across and 1,700 feet deep, according to Melosh's calculations. Think a magnitude-7 earthquake and 70-foot-high tsunami waves.

Scientists have been tracking the slowly spinning, spherical, dark-colored object since its discovery in 2005, and are positive it won't do any damage.

"We know the orbit of this object very well," Yeomans said.

The asteroid stretches a quarter-mile across. Smaller objects come close all the time, Yeomans noted, but nothing this big will have ventured so close since 1976. And nothing this large will again until 2028.

Radar observations from California and Puerto Rico will help scientists ascertain whether the asteroid is pockmarked with craters and holds any water-bearing minerals or even frozen water.

Amateur astronomers would need a 6-inch-or-bigger telescope and know exactly where to look to spot it.

Astronomers consider 2005 YU55 a C-type asteroid -- one containing carbon-based materials. "It's not just a whirling rock like most of them," Yeomans said.

Such objects are believed to have brought carbon-based materials and water to the early Earth, planting the seeds for life. The discovery of water-bearing minerals or ice would support that theory, Yeomans said.

This is the type of asteroid that NASA would want to aim for, with astronauts, Yeomans said, especially if frozen water is found. Such asteroids could serve as watering holes and fueling stations for future explorers, he said.

An asteroid is actually on NASA's short list for destinations.

President Barack Obama wants astronauts headed to an asteroid and then Mars in the coming decades. That's why the 30-year space shuttle program ceased this summer -- so NASA could have enough money to get cracking on these new destinations.

As for an actual strike by an asteroid this size, that's estimated to occur once every 100,000 years or so.

An asteroid named Apophis -- estimated to be 885 feet across -- will venture extremely close on April 13, 2029 -- but will not strike. It has a remote chance of hitting Earth when it comes around again on April 13, 2036.

Scientists said information gleaned from 2005 YU55, as well as other asteroids, will prove useful if and when it becomes necessary to deflect an incoming Armageddon-style rock.

Online:

NASA: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/

WOW SITE:
Purdue University: http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth
http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth

Massive asteroid 2005 YU55 hurtles past Earth ...
The size of a city block, Asteroid 2005 YU55 buzzed past Earth with just 201,700 miles of room to spare. 

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1108/Massive-asteroid-2005-YU55-hurtles-past-Earth-VIDEO


And

Article:
Big Asteroid Approaching Earth Spotted by NASA Radar
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 07 November 2011 Time: 06:34 PM ET
http://www.space.com/13539-big-asteroid-2005-yu55-nasa-radar-image.html

November 8, 2011
Scientists gather data as asteroid speeds by Earth
By Phil Willon | McClatchy-Tribune News Service

LOS ANGELES — The largest asteroid to pass close to Earth in decades hurtled by Tuesday afternoon, appearing as only a faint streaking glow on your average telescope but lighting up NASA's powerful radar screens.

The 1,300-foot-wide asteroid came within roughly 201,000 miles of the planet, within the moon's orbit but never posing a threat, allowing NASA scientists at the Deep Space Network antenna in the Mojave Desert their closest peak ever at such a massive space rock.

The radar images were detailed enough to allow the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, based in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., to create a short video of the spinning asteroid as it approached.

"The animation reveals a number of puzzling structures on the surface that we don't yet understand. To date, we've seen less than one half of the surface, so we expect more surprises," said radar astronomer Lance Benner, the lead scientist on the project.

NASA blasted the asteroid with microwaves from a radio telescope near Barstow, Calif., using the 230-foot-wide aluminum dish to receive signals bouncing off the asteroid. That data revealed its ridges, craters and boulders and provided enough information about its speed, trajectory and physical characteristics to allow JPL officials to plot its course for the next 64 years.

Benner said the data show that the asteroid - named 2005 YU55 - will have another close encounter with earth in 2075. It will skim close to Venus in 2029.

The close proximity gives researchers a rare opportunity to study the physical characteristics of a massive asteroid, adding to the research and understanding of bodies floating in space and offering a glimpse, perhaps, of the forces that created the universe, Benner said.

Robert S. McMillan, the University of Arizona scientist who discovered the asteroid, said the orbits, size, shape and mechanical structures of these "near earth objects" all provide clues to their origins and may help explain how they escape between the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

"We know the orbit extremely well," McMillan said while appearing on a webcast on Slooh.com, which provided live pictures of the asteroid Tuesday from its telescope in the Canary Islands. "We know it's not going to hit the Earth."

McMillan, head of the university's Spacewatch Project to track near-earth objects, warned that scientists will have to keep an eye on the asteroid because its course after 2075 cannot be determined reliably - even with all the new research.

McMillan discovered the asteroid in December 2005 while conducting a routine survey of space searching for asteroids. This one, YU55, jumped out because of its unusual path and rapid speed, he said.

"We detect thousands of asteroids in any clear night, but one in a thousand has a motion different from those in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter," he said.

NASA has identified more than 8,000 "near-Earth" asteroids, including more than 400 that are at least a half-mile wide. Thus far, none of them is classified as a threat.

Phil Willon writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/08/129731/scientists-gather-data-as-asteroid.html#ixzz1dDl9tgPA

Will its approach to Venus change its trajectory thereafter???????????





David

2075

That will put me at over 120 years of age.

Don't think I'm going to worry about it.

I wonder whether our race
will have become the Borg by then; I think it will.