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ramblingboy42
23rd February 2016, 07:11 AM
On 5th March a 30m asteroid will fly past Earth at an altitude of 17,000km.

That is 0.044 of the distance between our moon and earth.

I'm interested to know how close a celestial object can pass without being drawn in by our gravity.

It appears only the small asteroids ever get this close.

I sent an email to NASA asking that same question but didn't get a reply.

Perhaps Dr Karl may be able to answer it for me on triple J this thursday.

BTW , for the occasional stargazers , tonight's moon is the "snowmoon"....named because february has the highest snow falls in the USA. It will also be very bright for the shutterbugs.

Dennis.
67hardtop
23rd February 2016, 08:25 AM
It was almost like daylight out side at 330 am here in Adelaide.🌚

Cheers Rod

Sent from my GT-I9507 using AULRO mobile app
ramblingboy42
23rd February 2016, 01:59 PM
yeah Rod , but that's not unusual in Adelaide.

by the time the sun has gone down and the twilight sets in , if there's a moon it just doesn't get dark.

I lived there for several years and travel there at least twice a year.
weeds
23rd February 2016, 06:39 PM
Iooking forward to Dr Karl's response......providing I can listen
Pedro_The_Swift
23rd February 2016, 06:59 PM
I would imagine its more to do with speed than size?:confused:
Roverlord off road spares
23rd February 2016, 10:38 PM
I sent an email to NASA asking that same question but didn't get a reply.



They probably are keeping it hush hush, they probably don't want to create mass hysteria about the fact that we re about to die:eek: now wheres' my bucket list;)
FatBoy
23rd February 2016, 11:00 PM
It will be affected by the Earth's gravity, and the Earth by the asteroid's gravity too, but not so much as we will notice. The asteroid will no doubt change direction in some way that is noticeable, the Earth will have a very minor change, again, it will be unnoticeable. As others have stated, the speed of the asteroid will mean it is not "captured" by Earth's gravity (like the moon is).

The law of gravity states that you can never escape gravity, but it is an inverse to the square of the distance, but directly proportional to the mass of the objects. Therefore if you double the distance, you quarter the gravity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_law_of_universal_gravitation
Hall
23rd February 2016, 11:00 PM
Another thing to consider with this near miss is the effect that other planets, our moon have on its flight path, might be closer than they think ? IF there was a hit there`s no Hollywood style fix. Might happen as there is a black president at the moment and we all know that in all earth ending disaster movies there is a black president. Solid evidence for me, might start stocking water and food now. :)
Cheers Hall
Dark61
24th February 2016, 08:54 AM
Let me know if its going to hit. I'd like to take up smoking again.
cheers,
D
Hay Ewe
24th February 2016, 09:22 AM
Cool! thanks for the heads up, might read up on it later

wonder if it will hit me? might solve a few problems!
Hall
24th February 2016, 01:18 PM
Let me know if its going to hit. I'd like to take up smoking again.
https://youtu.be/VmW-ScmGRMA
Cheers Hall
ramblingboy42
24th February 2016, 02:13 PM
Its 5th of march this year guys.

Thats 10 days away.....hope you bucket list is short.

If it hits you wont need anything you've saved , it'll be Goodnight Irene.

and now.....WILL YOU ALL STOP SINGING THAT SONG !!!
Hay Ewe
24th February 2016, 04:15 PM
any links about this?

also, a 30meter asteroid will wipe us out?
awesome!
ramblingboy42
24th February 2016, 07:00 PM
listen in tomorrow....Dr Karl will answer the wipeout question.
V8Ian
25th February 2016, 09:13 AM
listen in tomorrow....Dr Karl will answer the wipeout question.

Time, channel?
FatBoy
25th February 2016, 11:23 AM
Time, channel?

Triple J. 11am - midday (from memory). I usually podcast Dr Karl's segment, it is available free from iTunes.
AllTerr
25th February 2016, 01:07 PM
Do not be alarmed! We are safe! NASA's got this!
http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/fireball-meteor-exploded-over-the-atlantic-earlier-this-month/news-story/f433677940a3544c31090f30500ffa12

Apparently we had a couple near misses recently and they've got us covered :D
ramblingboy42
28th February 2016, 03:28 PM
we actually have quite a few fly between us and the moon.

you can see a list of all known asteroids on collision course with earth at SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids (http://www.spaceweather.com)
Ausfree
29th February 2016, 07:11 AM
Here is some footage of the last meteor to hit Earth. It happened in Russia in Feb. 2013.:) 1200 people were injured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU
ramblingboy42
29th February 2016, 08:40 AM
ummm....this isn't a meteor Ausfree.

it's an asteroid.
Ausfree
29th February 2016, 09:08 AM
Definitons....definitions. I always thought an asteroid is in orbit around the sun. Most of them are between Mars and Jupiter. If they stray off orbit and hit the Earth's atmosphere and vapourises they become known as meteors and if they actually hit the ground they become known as a meteorite.

The body that hit Russia in 2013 was originally an asteroid so I'm guessing it fits all three categories.:)
ramblingboy42
29th February 2016, 01:29 PM
Definitons....definitions. I always thought an asteroid is in orbit around the sun. Most of them are between Mars and Jupiter. If they stray off orbit and hit the Earth's atmosphere and vapourises they become known as meteors and if they actually hit the ground they become known as a meteorite.

The body that hit Russia in 2013 was originally an asteroid so I'm guessing it fits all three categories.:)

...bugger....now I'm going to have to look up definitions just to satisfy my curiousity.

Also the passing distance has been changed to 3m km....big difference.....and to 8th March.

I wonder if they're actually tracking the right one ....hahaha