Huge Asteroid to Fly By Earth in November

badcompany

badcompany

badcompany

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Nope not elenin but asteroid 2005 YU55


2005 YU55 is about 400 meters [1,300 feet] wide .“This is the largest space rock we have identified that will come this close until 2028,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. Asteroid 2005 YU55 is a slow rotator. Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., has designated the space rock as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”



Bloody big rock and 200,000 is pretty dam close should hit magnitude 11 so will be nice and bright for us to see. :)


Initially, the object will be too close to the sun and too faint for optical observers. But late in the day (Universal Time) on Nov. 8, the solar elongation will grow sufficiently to see it. Early on Nov. 9, the asteroid could reach about 11th magnitude for several hours before it fades as its distance rapidly increases,
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http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/08/huge-asteroid-pass-near-earth-november/

http://www.universetoday.com/85360/take-a-look-huge-asteroid-to-fly-by-earth-in-november/


On a related note.

The W.I.S.E infared telescope was mothballed earlier this year
Link Launched on December 14, 2009,[1][2][3] and decommissioned/hibernated on February 17, 2011 when its transmitter was turned off.
rumours that the space station is to be abandoned later this year http://www.time.com
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some one move to GD please :)


http://www.space.com/8604-nasa-prepares-potentially-damaging-2011-meteor-shower.html

NASA is assessing the risk to spacecraft posed by the upcoming 2011 Draconid meteor shower, a seven-hour storm of tiny space rocks that has the potential to ding major Earth-orbiting spacecraft like the crewed International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope.

The meteor shower risk assessment is actually more art than science, and there has been some variation in the projected intensity levels of the 2011 Draconids by meteoroid forecasters. But spacecraft operators are already being notified to weigh defensive steps.

Current meteor forecast models project a strong Draconid outburst, possibly a full-blown storm, on Oct. 8, 2011, according to William Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.


Will be excellent night for star gazing lets hope its clear :)
 
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news171.html

2005_yu55a_s.jpg


Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years. However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass to within 0.6 lunar distances.



Hopefully we can see it from the UK

Since the asteroid will approach the Earth from the sunward direction, it will be a daylight object until the time of closest approach. The best time for new ground-based optical and infrared observations will be late in the day on November 8, after 21:00 hours UT from the eastern Atlantic and western Africa zone.
 
simulatorman said:
This will get all the doomsday merchants out again.
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Well it will hit us sooner or later.


Linky
It orbits the sun once every 14 years but will not collide with Earth for at least a century.

'YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over, at the very least, the next 100 years,' Mr Yeomans said.


if it was to hit Earth, it would exert a force the equivalent of 65,000 atomic bombs and leave a crater six miles wide and 2,000ft deep.
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Lets hope they find a way to move it along its way in the next 100 years.
 
badcompany said:
Well it will hit us sooner or later.
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No, it won't.

What it says is that it won't be at risk of colliding with Earth for at least 100 years.

It doesn't say that it will pose any real risk after that. And the "very least" can mean hundreds or thousands of years, or possible never.
 
How it interacts as it passes thru comet elenin's tail could prove interesting to say the least ;)



An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will come closer to Earth this autumn than our own moon does, causing scientists to hold their breath as it zooms by.
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