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Dread skull omen asteroid to pass earth on Halloween, discovered 10 days ago

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Wizman23

Banned
I remember watching a special that said that there were more people working at the average McDonalds than were looking for near earth asteroids. I hope that's no longer true, but people just don't understand how big SPAAAAAACE is.

Why bother though? If someone finds one that is heading towards Earth its not like the outcome is going to change.
 

params7

Banned
It really disappoints to me to know we're not putting up more resources and funding towards space. The fact that this was just discovered 10 days ago is disturbing. Coincidentally it won't hit us but why are we just counting on luck to save us every time and stall space programs as if they're not important to our very survival? We should at least have the tech and defenses against such objects if something like that were to head to earth. Maybe if one of those objects comes here and wipes only half the life out we might learn. Movies, books, education and Sci tv shows clearly aren't doing enough.
 

pestul

Member
The thing that worries me the most, is that the ones that have Earth in their cross-hairs are even harder to detect because they don't traverse the background very much. They're coming straight for us and we can't see the slight movement (especially if they're dark objects).. :S
 
It really disappoints to me to know we're not putting up more resources and funding towards space. The fact that this was just discovered 10 days ago is disturbing. Coincidentally it won't hit us but why are we just counting on luck to save us every time and stall space programs as if they're not important to our very survival? We should at least have the tech and defenses against such objects if something like that were to head to earth. Maybe if one of those objects comes here and wipes only half the life out we might learn. Movies, books, education and Sci tv shows clearly aren't doing enough.

The same reason the army corps didn't think it was necessary to build higher rated and better maintained levees.

Yea think of an actual stadium guys thats not that big at all in the grand scheme of things.

Let me know when continent-sized asteroids start passing by though.

While not an extinction level event, this thing is about 10 times the presumed size of the Tunguska asteroid and would still have enough energy to decimate an area roughly the size of Connecticut with significant knock on effects on the regional climate. Plus, the more likely ocean landing would create a tidal wave that would probably destroy the entire eastern coast of the US for a few hundred miles inward. It would be catastrophic to say the least, eclipsing every major natural disaster over the past century combined. Deaths on the order of a few hundred million.
 

psylah

Member
We have the technology to deflect asteroids much bigger than this one if we detect them early enough.
Early warning is really the key here, we can and should do better at that.

A canary in a coal mine puts to shame whatever system we've got.
mine_canary.jpg


How about funding NASA so they CAN bolster detection of NEOs? NASA has to stretch thin a tiny amount of cash compared to the national budget.
 
How about funding NASA so they CAN bolster detection of NEOs? NASA has to stretch thin a tiny amount of cash compared to the national budget.

At this point it's going to take actual, photographic, real-life confirmation of aliens for NASA to get better funding.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Any way to tell what size it would actually be once it hit the atmosphere. How much of it would burn up and what would the relative size of the object be upon impact?

Stadium size sounds pretty huge, but if 90% of gets fried and broken up into a million pieces upon entry it's not that impressive.
 

Volimar

Member
Why bother though? If someone finds one that is heading towards Earth its not like the outcome is going to change.


Absolutely it could. Given enough time we could send up machinery that would chunk off bits of asteroid and shoot them into space changing the mass and ever so slowly the speed or direction of the asteroid.

or...

We could send up a spacecraft with a great deal of mass and position it near the asteroid. Over time, the mass of the asteroid would slow the asteroid or change its trajectory by decimal points of degrees, enough to make the asteroid miss us.

or...

We send up a spacecraft that would detonate a series of nuclear explosions far enough in front of the asteroid that the explosion of energy would push against the asteroid, but not cause the asteroid to break apart. This would depend largely n the makeup of the asteroid.

The key to all these plans is detecting the asteroids early enough to enact such a plan.
 

cameron

Member
Radar image.
UgI6GZY.jpg

This image of asteroid 2015 TB145, a dead comet, was generated using radar data collected by the National Science Foundation's 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar image was taken on Oct. 30, 2015, and the image resolution is 25 feet (7.5 meters) per pixel.


"Halloween Skies to Include Dead Comet Flyby"
The large space rock that will zip past Earth this Halloween is most likely a dead comet that, fittingly, bears an eerie resemblance to a skull.

Scientists observing asteroid 2015 TB145 with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun.

The belated comet has also been observed by optical and radar observatories around the world, providing even more data, including our first close-up views of its surface. Asteroid 2015 TB145 will safely fly by our planet at just under 1.3 lunar distances, or about 302,000 miles (486,000 kilometers), on Halloween (Oct. 31) at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT, 17:00 UTC).

The first radar images of the dead comet were generated by the National Science Foundation's 305-meter (1,000-foot) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar images from Arecibo indicate the object is spherical in shape and approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter and completes a rotation about once every five hours.
 
It's nice to know we'll eventually have a 10-day warning to loot, riot and go out of our minds before Armageddon.

I hope fallout 5 is out by then.

EDIT: Holy giant alien skull.
 
Welp, that's not ominous or anything.

I for one welcome our new Mr Skeltal overlord.

Wait... "dead comet" what the fuck? Is it like a comet carrying a bunch of zombies or ghosts?
 

Konka

Banned
Welp, that's not ominous or anything.

I for one welcome our new Mr Skeltal overlord.

Wait... "dead comet" what the fuck? Is it like a comet carrying a bunch of zombies or ghosts?

It explains what a dead comet is. A comet that has lost the compounds that make it look like...

new-comet-mcnaught-1-100608-02.jpg
 

BibiMaghoo

Member
Explain how the sun is this massive object yet we look UP at it and it has yet to fall on us.

Wow.

It is gravity that makes us circle the sun. Gravity that makes the solar system circle the galaxy. Gravity that effects pretty much everything. If there was no gravity in space, we would literally not exist.
 
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