[Tiny] Asteroid Discovered Just Yesterday “Virtually Certain” to Have [Harmlessly] Impacted Earth
22 replies, posted
[QUOTE][B]For just the second time in history, an asteroid was discovered before it impacted the Earth.[/B] Don’t panic: It was very small, probably just a few meters across, and burned up harmlessly in our atmosphere. But after events of the past year, it underscores [B]the need to keep our eyes open.[/B]
The asteroid is (well, was) named 2014 AA, the very first asteroid discovered this year. It was detected by the Mount Lemmon Survey using a 150 centimeter (60 inch) telescope located on a mountaintop in Arizona. The first image showing the asteroid was taken on Jan. 1, 2014, at about 06:20 UTC (01:20 EST)—telescopes work whenever the sky is clear, holidays or no. The rock was faint, at about magnitude 19; the faintest star you can see with your naked eye is 150,000 times brighter! But an orbital calculation showed it was very close to Earth, and getting closer.
In fact, as the Minor Planet Electronic Circular discovery announcement said,[B] “It is virtually certain that 2014 AA hit the Earth's atmosphere on 2014 Jan. 2.2 +/- 0.4”—meaning around 05:00 UTC Jan. 2, midnight EST, just a few hours ago. It most likely burned up over the Atlantic, somewhere between South America and Africa.[/B]
From its brightness, it was probably about two to four meters across, about the size of a car. Objects that small generally disintegrate as they ram through the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, so there was never any big danger from this object. It orbited the Sun on a path that took it just outside the orbit of Mars to just inside our own. [UPDATE (Jan. 2 at 18:00 UTC): I had originally written the asteroid was less than two meteres across, but astronomer Ron Baalke informed me that it was more like two to four meters across judging from its brightness, so I have updated the post here.][/QUOTE]
[url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/02/asteroid_2014_aa_harmless_impact_over_atlantic_ocean_last_night.html]Source[/url]
[sp]Broken quotes.[/sp]
Ninja'd
[QUOTE=Aide;43396623]Broken quotes.[/QUOTE]
I have no idea what you're talking about :tinfoil:
Deep at the bottom of the ocean, a metal capsule split in half and out came a small, and peculiarly silvery robot with a camera-like device on top.
On January 2nd, 2014, the invasion began.
[QUOTE=Incoming.;43396668]Deep at the bottom of the ocean, a metal capsule split in half and out came a small, and peculiarly silvery robot with a camera-like device on top.
On January 2nd, 2014, the invasion began.[/QUOTE]
initiate the XCOM project
we're DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED
oh wait nvm the other thing,
not doomed
[QUOTE=DeEz;43396708]initiate the XCOM project[/QUOTE]
You haven't research the required technology yet!
If an asteroid too large to burn up in our atmosphere comes into range, Is there anything that CAN be done?
[QUOTE=Flazer210;43398203]If an asteroid too large to burn up in our atmosphere comes into range, Is there anything that CAN be done?[/QUOTE]
At the moment, no. The only thing that can be done is at best prepare areas that will be effected.
[QUOTE=Flazer210;43398203]If an asteroid too large to burn up in our atmosphere comes into range, Is there anything that CAN be done?[/QUOTE]
curl up in the fetal position.
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
Or ooo and aaaa
[QUOTE=Flazer210;43398203]If an asteroid too large to burn up in our atmosphere comes into range, Is there anything that CAN be done?[/QUOTE]
You can use a satellite as a gravity tractor, you can basically spray paint half of the asteroid white and let solar radiation knock it off course, attach thrusters to it to direct it away, detonate a small bomb over the surface to deflect it (you don't want to fragment it, though - that's bad news). There's actually rather a lot that can be done; it's all just dependent on how far away it is and how fast it's travelling when we first spot it.
[QUOTE=sltungle;43399466]You can use a satellite as a gravity tractor, you can basically spray paint half of the asteroid white and let solar radiation knock it off course, attach thrusters to it to direct it away, detonate a small bomb over the surface to deflect it (you don't want to fragment it, though - that's bad news). There's actually rather a lot that can be done; it's all just dependent on how far away it is and how fast it's travelling when we first spot it.[/QUOTE]
shoot all the extra decommissioned nukes we have at it so that when it hits us all the pebbles burn up and rain radiation down on us?
[QUOTE=.Isak.;43399606]shoot all the extra decommissioned nukes we have at it so that when it hits us all the pebbles burn up and rain radiation down on us?[/QUOTE]Am I a bad person for giggling with joy at the thought of a thousand chair-sized rocks laced with radioactive isotopes raining down on some island with a forgotten tribe on it? Like, they're just chilling and then "THE GODS ARE SUDDENLY REALLY FUCKING ANGRY AT US AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY."
[editline]3rd January 2014[/editline]
Then they mutate into crab people and invade North Korea.
Fuck asteroids. What I'm really afraid of is some big rogue star flung by a black hole millions of light-years away tearing through our solar system and taking everything else with it.
[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;43399710]Am I a bad person for giggling with joy at the thought of a thousand chair-sized rocks laced with radioactive isotopes raining down on some island with a forgotten tribe on it? Like, they're just chilling and then "THE GODS ARE SUDDENLY REALLY FUCKING ANGRY AT US AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY."
[editline]3rd January 2014[/editline]
Then they mutate into crab people and invade North Korea.[/QUOTE]
I don't know about you, but I giggled with joy at the thought of a thousand radioactive chairs raining down around the world.
[I]"We're getting reports that a camping chair has hit and severely damaged the spire of the Empire State Building"
"I was just out walking my dog a-and next thing I knew, there was a lazyboy on our roof!"
"A tragic scene of irony today as a world-renowned lawyer was killed by a falling couch after "resting his case". There were no other reported fatalities."[/I]
[QUOTE=Pilotguy97;43400578]I don't know about you, but I giggled with joy at the thought of a thousand radioactive chairs raining down around the world.
[I]"We're getting reports that a camping chair has hit and severely damaged the spire of the Empire State Building"
"I was just out walking my dog a-and next thing I knew, there was a lazyboy on our roof!"
"A tragic scene of irony today as a world-renowned lawyer was killed by a falling couch after "resting his case". There were no other reported fatalities."[/I][/QUOTE]
"We are in the second day of the mysterious chair epidemic, and the president has thus far reclined to comment"
"Parents everywhere should probably sit down for this..."
It better not contain a symbiote
[QUOTE=Flazer210;43398203]If an asteroid too large to burn up in our atmosphere comes into range, Is there anything that CAN be done?[/QUOTE]
we could always build this
[img]http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071123035629/acecombat/images/4/4e/STN_Overhead.jpg[/img]
then fight wars over it
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;43405002]we could always build this
[img]http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071123035629/acecombat/images/4/4e/STN_Overhead.jpg[/img]
then fight wars over it[/QUOTE]
What is this supposed to be?
[QUOTE=DEMONSKUL;43405047]What is this supposed to be?[/QUOTE]
[url]http://acecombat.wikia.com/wiki/Stonehenge_Turret_Network_(Strangereal)[/url]
[QUOTE=DEMONSKUL;43405047]What is this supposed to be?[/QUOTE]
A group of big ass cannons that were made to shoot a huge ass asteroid that was headed toward earth. After the asteroid struck, many nations fought over it so they could use it was a weapon of war.
If a giant asteroid DOES have a collision course with earth, all we need to do is send Bruce Willis up so he can nuke it
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