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posted by cmn32480 on Monday June 26 2017, @05:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the time-to-get-off-this-rock dept.

The asteroid – named 441987 (2010 NY65) – is marked as a concern because it's 230 metres in diameter and travelling just 7.9 lunar distances (that's about three million km) from us.

[...] If it were to strike, its weight could impact with a force 300 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb, scientists have predicted.

2010 NY65 was discovered on July 10, 2010 by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft and is expected to make yearly close approaches to Earth until 2022.

It might sound far-fetched, but experts have warned that an asteroid crash that would wipe out humanity could be imminent.

Dr Alan Fitzsimmons, speaking ahead of asteroid week this month, said there is currently nothing we can do to stop a large space rock heading our way – and the impact would be catastrophic.

Well, an asteroid impact is certainly one way to solve all our problems.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @05:17PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @05:17PM (#531411)

    When is the hazard due to this asteroid? Are they uncertain about how close it will pass this time, or just about a later time (in 10 years or whatever)? The way it takes info about a specific asteroid and combines with a claim about asteroids/comets in general, really makes this story look like fake news to me...

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 26 2017, @06:07PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 26 2017, @06:07PM (#531440)

    With each annual close approach the uncertainty builds. A small unanticipated nudge this year could translate to a collision in 2021.

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    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 26 2017, @06:15PM (5 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Monday June 26 2017, @06:15PM (#531445) Journal

    https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/ [nasa.gov] Then sort by date column. Select plus/minus 30 days.

    The story was in the queue so long the date has past. 2017-Jun-24 06:38 ± 00:01

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @06:40PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @06:40PM (#531458)

      I saw that but not how I can assess future hazard due to this object. Basically I need to take info from here [nasa.gov] and plug it into my own solar system sim (I do happen to have one, not that it is so great)?

      But what about the 99.9999% of people who do not have a sim ready to go they can plug into?

      Is it to go here [nasa.gov] and just look at the "Minimum Distance" column?

      2017-Jun-24 06:38: 0.0202787615525259 AU
      2018-Jun-24 09:06: 0.018693090429261 AU
      2019-Jun-24 16:59: 0.0196088547716538 AU
      2020-Jun-24 06:44: 0.0251187387296859 AU
      2021-Jun-25 05:09: 0.0399230187407039 AU

      • (Score: 2) by tfried on Monday June 26 2017, @07:58PM (2 children)

        by tfried (5534) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:58PM (#531498)

        Wow, that's really, really close to exactly yearly. How come? Is there a visualization of the trajectory, somewhere?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @08:52PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @08:52PM (#531525)

          I don't know anything beyond what's in TFS, but apparently it's a co-orbital [wikipedia.org] object, likely in a horseshoe orbit similar to 3753 Cruithne, the first discovered and best-known Earth co-orbital. These orbits are in resonance (astrospeak for a phase-locked loop) with Earth, so the instantaneous ratio floats over/under per orbit, but maintain a long-term ratio of exactly 1:1.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @12:57AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @12:57AM (#531682)

            I only pasted the "close" ones and left out another from 2020:
            2020-May-22 22:28: 0.119566985581909

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @07:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @07:53PM (#531496)

      The story was in the queue so long the date has past. 2017-Jun-24 06:38 ± 00:01

      Broken News?

  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 26 2017, @10:46PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday June 26 2017, @10:46PM (#531611)

    really makes this story look like fake news to me...

    It's from The Sun, so it's a toss up whether it's nonsense or real.

    I'm pretty sure that's the paper where everything either gives you cancer or cures it.

    Anyway, writing a clickbait article about a space rock coming to wipe us all out is probably true, but there's no word on the timeframe, it will either happen tomorrow or 6 billion years in the future. Or some time in the middle.