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Asteroid Near-Misses (AKA: Holy Shit! We're All Going to Die)

’ Nasa said. They believe, were it to strike Earth, it would be the equivalent to detonating 230 kilotonnes of TNT. That kind of a detonation would dwarf the force of the Hiroshima atomic bomb in 1945, which exploded with the force of 15 kilotonnes of TNT.


Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/14/nasa...article.desktop.share.top.twitter?ito=cbshare

When one considers that we have detonated Hydrogen bombs in the MegaTonne, 230 Kilotonnes is hardly an existential thread; unless you happen to be in the locality.
 
Forget Corona Virus! The Asteroid Cometh!

Don't worry about coronavirus. A "killer asteroid" could wipe out life on Earth long before the epidemic.
  • As if the coronavirus plague isn’t terrifying enough, the Earth will cross paths with a planet-destroying asteroid this Saturday.
  • It’s larger than the tallest building on Earth, and big enough to trigger a major impact event, nuclear winter, and mass extinctions.
  • NASA has officially classified the planet killer as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” (PHA). It will miss by just 0.038 astronomical units.
https://www.ccn.com/forget-coronavirus-this-earth-destroyer-asteroid-could-kill-you-first/
 
So that's human civilisation ending in April 2020.....but it probably won't be the end of the entire world, or of all animal life. And a few hardy people might survive. So that's not so bad, then.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/scie...roid-hit-Earth-end-civilisation-asteroid-news

Yeah, that's just the Express being their usual clickbaity selves again. No risk from this one. (unless I manage to finish my giant space-electromagnet-ray in time, divert the asteroid and then manage to HOLD THE WORLD TO RANSOM)

 
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The frustrating thing about all these near misses is how small the objects are, impossible to see without a good telescope. C'mon, universe, send something really close enough to properly scare the pants off people as it sails dramatically across the night sky!
As I type this I recall a small comet did just that in the early 1980s, close enough to be seen with the naked eye and it moved noticeably as we watched.
Got it: IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983d
 
On my phone it has the samsung 'upday' feature that gives you a load of 'news' articles one after the other. You can choose to not see articles on certain themes (for example I have already screened out 'celebrity' news and the like, but some still creep in).
Anyways.....I have found that after the pertinent actual news articles have all been shown the system then starts offering me items that I might be interested in based on previous things I showed an interest in, and it always seems to be the case that the fourth or fifth article is always something from (eg) 'daily news' about "MASSIVE ASTEROID WILL COME WITHIN METRES OF THE EARTH TONIGHT" accompanied by that type of picture of planetary devastation. And as someone said, it is indeed just 'clickbait' as if you read the article it always goes on to say that it won't hit the earth etc.
But my questions are these: Why do 'they' put these 'articles' out so frequently? What are 'they' planning to gain from it? Who actually believes any of it?
 
So just disable the application; easy.
 
On my phone it has the samsung 'upday' feature that gives you a load of 'news' articles one after the other. You can choose to not see articles on certain themes (for example I have already screened out 'celebrity' news and the like, but some still creep in).
Anyways.....I have found that after the pertinent actual news articles have all been shown the system then starts offering me items that I might be interested in based on previous things I showed an interest in, and it always seems to be the case that the fourth or fifth article is always something from (eg) 'daily news' about "MASSIVE ASTEROID WILL COME WITHIN METRES OF THE EARTH TONIGHT" accompanied by that type of picture of planetary devastation. And as someone said, it is indeed just 'clickbait' as if you read the article it always goes on to say that it won't hit the earth etc.
But my questions are these: Why do 'they' put these 'articles' out so frequently? What are 'they' planning to gain from it? Who actually believes any of it?
clickbait articles are about ad revenue. That one I posted a link to a while ago is something like 30 pages and there's like 4 ads on each page of the article.
 
So just disable the application; easy.
Actually I like the app. And 97% of the stuff on there (even when it is clickbait) is quite interesting. I just engage my bullshit filter which seems to work remarkably well.
 
And as someone said, it is indeed just 'clickbait' as if you read the article it always goes on to say that it won't hit the earth etc.
But my questions are these: Why do 'they' put these 'articles' out so frequently? What are 'they' planning to gain from it? Who actually believes any of it?
I don't know the answer, other than scaremongering or to generate ad revenue, but the Express are seemingly always at it. I have an optional newsfeed thingy on my mobile phone and it seems to attract rather more Express content than is good for me. They seem to have very specific obsessions, such as weather panics and BBC breakfast TV (yes, really). They're either trying to suggest in their headlines that we're about to be blanketed by snow across the whole UK - on reading the actual article, it's a spot of cold weather and maybe snow on higher ground (no shit) - or trying to make out that one BBC presenter has mortally offended another, when it's never been the actual case.
 
A relatively small asteroid will whizz past the earth at a distance closer than our moon tomorrow ...
An Asteroid Will Get Closer to Earth Than The Moon This Thursday, But Don't Panic

An asteroid will get awfully close to Earth this Thursday (September 24), when it whizzes by our planet closer than the Moon orbits.

The asteroid - known as 2020 SW - isn't expected to collide with Earth, according to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. But it will get close, passing about 16,700 miles (27,000 kilometers) away from Earth, according to the Virtual Telescope Project.

To put this in perspective, the moon hangs out at an average of 238,900 miles (384,000 km) from us, or about 30 Earths away. This asteroid will pass at a distance of about 2.1 Earths.

This means that asteroid 2020 SW will pass even closer than TV and weather satellites, which orbit at about 22,300 miles (35,888 km) away from Earth, according to EarthSky.

Scientists have yet to pin down the asteroid's exact size, but it's not that large, likely between 14 feet and 32 feet (4.4 and 9.9 meters) long, according to CNEOS. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/an-ast...h-than-the-moon-this-thursday-but-don-t-panic
 
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Another too small to see without a large telescope. Barely worth a mention. Tell us when we can see something!
 

Apophis had already been touted as posing a risk when it passes earth in 2029, when it will come closer than our communications satellites.
This India.com article is the first I've seen raising concerns about a potential impact event in 2068.
Will The World End? Massive Asteroid ‘Apophis’, Equal to Size of 3 Football Fields, May Hit Earth in 2068

If you thought 2020 is bad, wait for the year 2068 when a huge asteroid could potentially wipe all of humanity! Yes, astronomers have revealed that an asteroid named ‘Apophis’ is expected to pass extremely close or may hit the Earth in 2068 due to a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect. Interestingly, the asteroid is named after The Egyptian god of Chaos and Evil. ...

Researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have announced the detection of Yarkovsky acceleration on the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. This acceleration arises from an extremely weak force on an object due to non-uniform thermal radiation. ...

Earlier, it was believed that the asteroid would pass by leaving the earth unscathed, but astronomers are no longer certain now. The detection of the Yarkovsky effect acting on Apophis means that the 2068 impact scenario is still a possibility.

This force is particularly important for the asteroid Apophis, as it affects the probability of an Earth impact in 2068, the astronomers said. ...

Apophis is noteworthy because of its extremely close approach to the Earth on April 13, 2029, when the 300 metre-sized asteroid will become visible to the unaided eye as it passes within the belt of communications satellites orbiting the Earth. ...

SOURCE: https://www.india.com/viral/will-th...ootball-fields-may-hit-earth-in-2068-4203637/
 
Apophis had already been touted as posing a risk when it passes earth in 2029, when it will come closer than our communications satellites.
This India.com article is the first I've seen raising concerns about a potential impact event in 2068. ...

Belay those concerns ... Based on newly collected and analyzed data NASA now claims Apophis doesn't pose an earth collision risk for at least a century.
NASA gives all clear: Earth safe from asteroid for 100 years

Whew, now here’s some good cosmic news: NASA has given Earth the all clear for the next century from a particularly menacing asteroid.

The space agency announced this week that new telescope observations have ruled out any chance of Apophis smacking Earth in 2068.

That’s the same 1,100-foot (340-meter) space rock that was supposed to come frighteningly close in 2029 and again in 2036. NASA ruled out any chance of a strike during those two close approaches a while ago. But a potential 2068 collision still loomed. ...

“A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years,” Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said in a statement Friday.

Scientists were able to refine Apophis’ orbit around the sun thanks to radar observations earlier this month, when the asteroid passed within 10.6 million miles (17 million kilometers). ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/science-asteroids-4ebc6f2807a4c59f859b1292875ae1d4
 
If it does strike you might survive ...

If you make camp on the right continent, in the right environment, and you seek out the right kind of shelter, at the right altitudes, at the right times, you might stand a chance, says Charles Bardeen, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who recently modeled the asteroid’s fallout for the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. Of course, even if you are on the opposite side of the world at the time of impact—which is the only way you can hope to make it out alive—he recommends you act quickly. As soon as you hear its sonic boom (don’t worry—you’ll be able to hear it from the other side of the world), get yourself to high ground and find underground shelter. Immediately.

You might think this sounds a bit alarmist. If you’re on the opposite side of the world—which you should be—why do you need to duck and cover from a city-sized rock landing 10,000 miles away? But you wouldn’t be the first to make the mistake of underestimating an asteroid. The cataclysmic risk posed by asteroids wasn’t well understood until World War I. Before then, most astronomers operated under the blissful naivete that massive impacts like Chicxulub were simply not possible. ...

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-survive-a-killer-asteroid/
 
If it does strike you might survive ...

If you make camp on the right continent, in the right environment, and you seek out the right kind of shelter, at the right altitudes, at the right times, you might stand a chance, says Charles Bardeen, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who recently modeled the asteroid’s fallout for the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. Of course, even if you are on the opposite side of the world at the time of impact—which is the only way you can hope to make it out alive—he recommends you act quickly. As soon as you hear its sonic boom (don’t worry—you’ll be able to hear it from the other side of the world), get yourself to high ground and find underground shelter. Immediately.

You might think this sounds a bit alarmist. If you’re on the opposite side of the world—which you should be—why do you need to duck and cover from a city-sized rock landing 10,000 miles away? But you wouldn’t be the first to make the mistake of underestimating an asteroid. The cataclysmic risk posed by asteroids wasn’t well understood until World War I. Before then, most astronomers operated under the blissful naivete that massive impacts like Chicxulub were simply not possible. ...

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-survive-a-killer-asteroid/
Well one supposedly wiped out the dinosaurs (excluding there relatives the birds and crocodilians) and I believe > 60% of all life on the earth. They did not have the benefits of telescopes and astronomy.
 
The odds of asteroid Bennu striking earth during the next century are higher than previously believed.
Higher but still slim odds of asteroid Bennu slamming Earth

The good news is that scientists have a better handle on asteroid Bennu’s whereabouts for the next 200 years. The bad news is that the space rock has a slightly greater chance of clobbering Earth than previously thought.

But don’t be alarmed: Scientists reported Wednesday that the odds are still quite low that Bennu will hit us in the next century. ...

While the odds of a strike have risen from 1-in-2,700 to 1-in-1,750 over the next century or two, scientists now have a much better idea of Bennu’s path thanks to NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft ...

Before Osiris-Rex arrived at Bennu in 2018, telescopes provided solid insight into the asteroid, about one-third of a mile (one-half kilometer) in diameter. The spacecraft collected enough data over 2 1/2 years to help scientists better predict the asteroid’s orbital path well into the future.

Their findings — published in the journal Icarus — should also help in charting the course of other asteroids and give Earth a better fighting chance if and when another hazardous space rock heads our way. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-science-asteroids-b263cf0b40e5d1e03e86307868640dce
 
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