# Huge asteroid will pass Earth within the Moon’s orbit on November 8



## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

saw this article and thought that some might be interested. 

Huge asteroid will pass Earth within the Moon


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

That link doesn't work anymore but I found the story in the USA Today online

Asteroid 2005 YU55 will zip by Earth next week

A close encounter of the harmless kind comes next Tuesday when an aircraft-carrier-size asteroid races past Earth.

An aircraft-carrier-size asteroid will zoom past Earth on Nov. 8. It will be the largest near-miss for the planet in three decades.

The asteroid, dubbed 2005 YU55, will come within 202,000 miles of Earth, closer than the moon, before zipping farther into space. Carbon-colored and dark, the asteroid measures some 1,300 feet wide. It will be the closest visit by a space rock this size in more than three decades.

"This is not a potentially hazardous asteroid, just a good opportunity to study one," National Science Foundation astronomer Thomas Statler says. NASA and the NSF plan a series of radar telescope and other observations starting Friday, aimed at mapping the asteroid's surface and chemistry.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

In terms of distance in the Universe, it can't really be measured how close it is. It's missing us by a hair. 

At 1300 ft it may not be a world killer, but it could be a country killer....

Jimmy


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

One that size could cause a lot of problems for everybody else besides where it hit.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

Iran maybe ? LOL


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Anyone know if we will be able to see it and from what places?


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

Austin said:


> Anyone know if we will be able to see it and from what places?


It's about the size of an aircraft carrier and it won't get closer than 200,000 miles away.

Asteroid 2005 YU55 near Earth November 8 - National Astronomy | Examiner.com

"Because it is fairly small and has a dark carbonaceous surface, 2005 YU55 will be about 50 to 100 times too faint with to see with the naked eye. As astronomers measure brightness, it will be magnitude 11.2."

I don't know what kind of telescope you'd need to see it.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

BillS said:


> "Because it is fairly small and has a dark carbonaceous surface, 2005 YU55 will be about 50 to 100 times too faint with to see with the naked eye. As astronomers measure brightness, it will be magnitude 11.2."
> 
> I don't know what kind of telescope you'd need to see it.


:hmmm: seems like a 3 inch could see it

A pair of 50-millimeter binoculars will show stars of about 9th magnitude, a 6-inch amateur telescope will reach to 13th magnitude, and the Hubble Space Telescope has seen objects as faint as 31st magnitude.

6.50 is the approximate limit of stars observed by a mean naked eye observer under very good conditions. There are about 9,500 stars visible to mag 6.5 according to the SIMBAD Astronomical Database. The full Moon has a mean apparent magnitude of -12.74 and the Sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.74.



> Star magnitudes count backward, the result of an ancient fluke that seemed like a good idea at the time. The story begins around 129 B.C., when the Greek astronomer Hipparchus produced the first well-known star catalog. Hipparchus ranked his stars in a simple way. He called the brightest ones "of the first magnitude," simply meaning "the biggest." Stars not so bright he called "of the second magnitude," or second biggest. The faintest stars he could see he called "of the sixth magnitude." Around A.D. 140 Claudius Ptolemy copied this system in his own star list. Sometimes Ptolemy added the words "greater" or "smaller" to distinguish between stars within a magnitude class. Ptolemy's works remained the basic astronomy texts for the next 1,400 years, so everyone used the system of first to sixth magnitudes. It worked just fine.





> Galileo forced the first change. On turning his newly made telescopes to the sky, Galileo discovered that stars existed that were fainter than Ptolemy's sixth magnitude. "Indeed, with the glass you will detect below stars of the sixth magnitude such a crowd of others that escape natural sight that it is hardly believable," he exulted in his 1610 tract Sidereus Nuncius. "The largest of these . . . we may designate as of the seventh magnitude." Thus did a new term enter the astronomical language, and the magnitude scale became open-ended.


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

I read that it will pass closer to the moon than to Earth. It would be bad enough if it hit the Earth but imagine if it just hit the moon and the changes that would bring? The change in gravitational pull could cause tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and their subsequent dust in the air.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

gypsysue said:


> I read that it will pass closer to the moon than to Earth. It would be bad enough if it hit the Earth but imagine if it just hit the moon and the changes that would bring? The change in gravitational pull could cause tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and their subsequent dust in the air.


The comparitive masses of moon vs asteroid are such that it would be MUCH safer for the moon to intercept this than to have it hit the Earth, even at the tremendous speeds (25,000+ mph) 

my 'pet' metaphysical/spiritual/quasi-religious theory is that the moon is there just for this reason

a rock the size of a car would hit with about 3x force of the Hiroshima bomb


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

Nadja said:


> Iran maybe ? LOL


Were those Isreali scientists making this report? Perhaps the asteroid will go off course and hit Iran.... ooops!


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

TheAnt said:


> Were those Isreali scientists making this report? Perhaps the asteroid will go off course and hit Iran.... ooops!


:lolsmash: God works in mysterious ways! Think we can add a couple other countries to that list? 

Blob, me thinks you're underestimating the moon's importance and how it affects the Earth! If it hits with enough force to knock it out of place even a little, the SH will have HTF for us here on Earth!

The moon's a small target, though, and not likely to be hit. Still...


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## ZonaJeep (Mar 24, 2009)

Damn, beat me to it.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Expected to make another, closer pass in 2092 or something.


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

All I have to say is "YIKES!!!!"


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

the distance it will pass with is less than the distance to the moon. it does not will pass between us and the moon just that it will be closer.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

Actually, what the moon does is provide stability to the earth's axial tilt. 23.5º works very well for the earth. If the tilt was 60º the seasons would become extreme and if we no seasons at all most of the world would be too cold for agriculture.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

dh asks if the asteroid hits will we all get hemorrhoids? :scratch


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## horseman09 (Mar 2, 2010)

stayingthegame said:


> dh asks if the asteroid hits will we all get hemorrhoids? :scratch


:lolsmash::lolsmash:

No, but if it hits near you, it sure will be a pain in the a$$.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

gypsysue said:


> :lolsmash: God works in mysterious ways! Think we can add a couple other countries to that list?
> 
> Blob, me thinks you're underestimating the moon's importance and how it affects the Earth! If it hits with enough force to knock it out of place even a little, the SH will have HTF for us here on Earth!
> 
> The moon's a small target, though, and not likely to be hit. Still...












I'm absolutely NOT underestimating the moon's importance, without it humans wouldn't be here! Luna is without-a-solitary-doubt the single greatest factor to affect the planet in many aspects (climatological, geological, biological)...

I'm not even considering the inertia of the moon here, just using a static mass figure

mass of moon 7.3483 x 10^22 metric tons (static mass)

impact force of 2005 YU55 = 1.046875 x 10^15 or 2.5 megatons
(The famous Krakatoa volcanic explosion in the 1880s released about 150 PJ, or the equivalent of 40 megatons)


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

Oh wow, Blob, thanks for the pictogram showing the paths of the moon and the asteroid! Very interesting. 

I misunderstood. On your earlier post I thought you felt it wouldn't be any big deal if the asteroid hit the moon. Depending on size and speed, it might now, but if it knocked the moon to a new orbit, then yikes!

Looking at what you just posted, it doesn't seem like it'll come close enough to the moon or the Earth to actually hit.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

gypsysue said:


> Oh wow, Blob, thanks for the pictogram showing the paths of the moon and the asteroid! Very interesting.
> 
> I misunderstood. On your earlier post I thought you felt it wouldn't be any big deal if the asteroid hit the moon. Depending on size and speed, it might now, but if it knocked the moon to a new orbit, then yikes!
> 
> Looking at what you just posted, it doesn't seem like it'll come close enough to the moon or the Earth to actually hit.


actually, you understood me perfectly, it would NOT be a big deal if it hit the moon, it literally is the "bb vs bowling ball" scenario, a much larger impactor would be needed.

to put it in better persepctive:
2.7 megatons is 7.5 richtor scale like the Kashmir earthquake (Pakistan) in 2005 or the Antofagasta earthquake (Chile) in 2007

the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba (largest (admitted) thermonuclear weapon ever tested) is equal to 8.35 richtor scale


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

Well, today is the 8th. Does anyone know what time this asteroid is supposed to do it's 'fly-by'?


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## lhalfcent (Mar 11, 2010)

we are all gonna die.....


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## Bigdog57 (Oct 9, 2008)

My Selenium Q38 Explosive Space Modulator is defective - there was supposed to have been an Earth shattering "KABOOM"! 

Well, nearly 7PM now, and no fireworks.......I'd call it a miss.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

Look, a falling star!!!


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

The_Blob said:


> actually, you understood me perfectly, it would NOT be a big deal if it hit the moon, it literally is the "bb vs bowling ball" scenario, a much larger impactor would be needed.
> 
> to put it in better persepctive:
> 2.7 megatons is 7.5 richtor scale like the Kashmir earthquake (Pakistan) in 2005 or the Antofagasta earthquake (Chile) in 2007
> ...


I can't believe I wasted all that time (10 whole minutes   ) doing the MATH, when I could've been lazy & just waited for the news blurb that said the exact same thing about what would happen if it hit Earth


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