Category Archives: Asteroids

Near Miss By Asteroid On 19 April 2017


Reposting a Dr Roy Spencer’s  posting about  a large Asteriod that will pass close to the Earth on April 19  2017.

Half-mile Wide Asteroid Close Approach on Wednesday

April 18th, 2017

An asteroid capable of destroying Washington D.C. and New York City at the same time will be making its closest approach to Earth on April 19.

At a half-mile wide, it will have over 30,000 times as much mass as the 2013 meteor which exploded over Russia in 2013.

The current asteroid, called “2014 JO25“, is traveling at the unimaginably fast speed of 75,000 mph. It has been estimated that an asteroid of this size is capable of wiping out an area the size of New England, and causing global cooling from the dust that would be lofted into the stratosphere. “2014 JO25” will be the closest appoach asteroid of this size in the last 13 years.

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that even at closest approach, the asteroid — about the size of the Rock of Gibraltar — will safely pass by about 4.6 times as far away from Earth as the moon.

The bad news is that this asteroid was only discovered in 2014, and even if it was on a collision course with Earth, there probably would not have been enough time to mount a mission to hit it with a nuclear-weapon tipped rocket. This is why NASA has been surveying the skies, discovering new asteroids on a routine basis. While most of these are small, the relatively recent discovery of Wednesday’s asteroid suggests we will not have much time to respond if we discover one on a collision course with Earth. I suspect we will eventually have a rocket designed and ready for an intercept, just in case.

 

Scary

cbdakota

Now For Something Entirely Different


VOX.com has a page with “40 maps that explain the universe”. Photos and drawing plus text are there for your review. Some of the illustrations are really eye catching. For example:

Even a single comet is pretty darn big

meteoronlaf0ba1pE.0

 

This is the comet 67P/C-G — which the Philae probe landed on in November 2014 — superimposed on Los Angeles. In terms of space, the comet is absolutely tiny: just 3.5 miles wide.

Continue reading

Asteroid DA14 Passes By Earth Friday 15 Feb.


NASA provides the video animation of asteroid DA14 that passes  near-by the Earth on Friday 15 February 2013.  The asteroid will be about 17,150 miles (27,600 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=159813511

cbdakota

Asteroids Caused By Global Warming?


Just when you thought it might be safe, along comes another  misinformed media talking head.  This one thinks that even asteroids could be caused by global warming.  My guess is that she is not alone in being this deep into the Koolaid.  She does not seem to think for herself; she just believes everything the alarmist preach.

Read this and be sure to look at the video.

cbdakota

Two Mile Wide Comet Passing By Earth In 2013.



NASA confirms that a 2 mile wide comet, discovered by amateur Russian Astronomers,  is coming our way.  The comet is know as ISON.  According to NASA:
“Comet ISON appears on course to achieve sungrazer status as it passes within a solar diameter of Sun’s surface in late 2013 November. Whatever survives will then pass nearest the Earth in late 2013 December,” NASA astronomers explained in a posting. ‘Astronomers around the world will be tracking this large dirty snowball closely to better understand its nature and how it might evolve during the next 15 months’  “The comet, which is estimated to be nearly two miles wide, will likely be one of the largest comets to ever pass Earth. While there is a chance that ISON will disintegrate when it approaches the sun, some astronomers say heat from the sun will vaporize ices in its body, creating what could be a spectacular tail.”
To read more click here.
I think that a bright object in the sky at the end of December may remind some of      another bright object in the sky several thousand years ago.
Just saying.
cbdakota
 

Mayan Apocalypse And Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversal


NASA issued a bulletin that reviews the worried inquires people have made relative to the Mayan Apocalypse.  The “apocalypse” is that the Earth will end on 21 December 2012  when the Mayan 5125 year Long Count calendar ends. NASA said that a catastrophic celestial collision between Earth and the mythical planet Nibiru or  a disastrous crash with a comet are not going to happen.   Nibiru is supposed to be hiding behind the Sun. NASA says there is no planet hiding behind the Sun.  NASA also: “… rejected apocalyptic theories about unusual alignments of the planets, or that the Earth’s magnetic poles could suddenly “flip.”polarflips285px-Geomagnetic_polarity_late_Cenozoic
 
I am intrigued by the magnetic field flip. The North and South magnetic poles have flipped a number of times over the 5 billion year history of the Earth.  But generally scientists concur that the most recent flip occurred some 800,000+ years ago.  There are people that believe the magnetic poles have flipped much more recently.  One author, Robert Felix says, for example, that 11,000 years ago as well as 23,000 and 33,500 years ago, the polarity flipped.  He correlates these times with ice ages, eruptions of super volcanos and species mutations.
The legend on the chart to the right: Geomagnetic polarity during the late Cenozoic Era. Dark areas denote periods where the polarity matches today’s polarity, light areas denote periods where that polarity is reversed. (from Wikipedia–Click on chart to improve clarity)

Dr Evans:”Climate Models Are Violently At Odds With Reality”


Dr. David Evans has posted “Four Fatal Pieces of Evidence” demonstrating that using computer climate models as the basis for man-made global warming (AGW)  theory is,  in Dr. Evans’ view,  “violently at odds with reality”. He maintains there is “no empirical evidence that global warming is mainly man-made.  If there was, we would have heard about it.  Tens of billions of dollars have been spent looking for it.”Dr Evans uses four pieces of evidence to illustrate his position.

First: Evans examines the Climate Model predictions made by James Hansen (the so-called godfather of AGW) during his testimony to the US Congress in 1988.(click on chart to enlarge)

Evans says:”… the actual temperature rises are about a third of what he predicted. Remember, they have been saying the “science is settled” since the early 80’s, and the models now are essentially the same as they were then.

Furthermore, Hansen’s models predicted the temperature rise if human carbon dioxide emissions were cut back drastically starting in 1988, such that by year 2000 the atmospheric carbon dioxide level was not rising at all. But in reality, the temperature did not even rise that much. Which proves that the climate models don’t have a clue about the effect of carbon dioxide on world temperature.”

Second: Evans looks at ocean warming.  This is a better gauge of global warming than is measuring atmospheric temperature fluctuations.  The Argo Buoys were put into service in 2003.  The measurements of ocean temperatures prior to the Argo program are suspect in my view.  Nothing before 2003 remotely resembles the scope of Argo measurements.(click on chart to enlarge)

Evans says: the climate models predict the oceans should be warming. We’ve only been measuring ocean temperature properly since 2003, using the ARGO system. In ARGO, a buoy duck dives down to 2000m, slowly ascends and reads the temperatures on the way, then radios the result back by satellite to HQ. Three thousand ARGO buoys patrol the oceans constantly. They say that the ocean temperature since 2003 has been basically flat. Again, reality is very different to the climate models.

Thirdly: Evans looks at the “hotspot” which was  a climate computer prediction  which is the  Warmers’ proof of the positive feedback.  Feedback that is able to take a weak CO2 forcing signal and double or triple it.   Unfortunately for the advocates of this hypothesis, the hotspot does not exist.(click on chart to enlarge)

Evans says: “the climate models predict a particular pattern of atmospheric warming during periods of global warming. In particular, the most prominent change they predict is a warming in the tropics about 10 km up, the so-called “hotspot”. But we have been measuring atmospheric temperatures by weather balloons since the 1960s, and millions of weather balloons say there was no such hotspot during the last warming from 1975 to 2001. The hotspot is integral to their theory, because it would be evidence of the extra evaporation and thickening of the water vapor blanket that produces two thirds of the warming in the climate models…”

Fourthly:  Evans hits on one of the most discussed topic in recent times—that of outgoing radiation into space.    Note in the chart below that the top row left is the actual measurements of outgoing radiation by the stat elite ERBE program (Earth Radiation Budget Experiment-click here for more information.)   The other boxes are climate model predictions. (Chart source=Lindzen and Choi 2009)

Evans says: “satellites have measured the outgoing radiation from the earth and found that the earth gives off more heat when the surface is warmer, and less heat in months when the earth’s surface is cooler. Who could have guessed? But the climate models say the opposite, that the Earth gives off less heat when the surface is warmer, because they trap heat too aggressively (positive feedback). Again, the climate models are violently at odds with reality.”

Evans sums up saying:” Those are four independent pieces of evidence that the climate models are fundamentally flawed. Anyone one of them, by itself, disproves the theory of man-made global warming. There are also other, more complex, pieces of evidence. Remember, there is no direct evidence that man causes global warming, so if the climate models are wrong then so is the theory.”

Read all of Evan’s posting here.

cbdakota

Asteroid Encounters–August thru November


So why do I find these near Earth encounters fascinating???—- I don’t know.
But here is a listing of things to come,, up to and including  November.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2011 QE23
Aug 22
7.6 LD
32 m
2009 AV
Aug 22
49.7 LD
1.1 km
2003 QC10
Sep 18
50 LD
1.2 km
2004 SV55
Sep 19
67.5 LD
1.2 km
2007 TD
Sep 23
3.8 LD
58 m
2002 AG29
Oct 9
77.1 LD
1.0 km
2000 OJ8
Oct 13
49.8 LD
2.5 km
2009 TM8
Oct 17
1.1 LD
8 m
2011 FZ2
Nov 7
75.9 LD
1.6 km
2005 YU55
Nov 8
0.8 LD
175 m
1994 CK1
Nov 16
68.8 LD
1.5 km
1996 FG3
Nov 23
39.5 LD
1.1 km

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. 

Fortunately,   the close ones are SMALL.

H/T spaceweather.com

cbdakota

NEAR EARTH ASTEROID DUE IN NOVEMBER


There are many asteroids out there and NASA’s Deep Space Network tries to keep track of those that will pass near the Earth.  They are reporting that asteroid 2005 YU55 will fly by at 0.85 lunar distances.  Which is another way of saying it will be closer to us than the moon (1.0 lunar distance).  It is pretty big too, at 400 feet in diameter.  It was discovered in 2005 (note the identification of this asteroid begins with 2005) by Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

It will be so close that NASA spokesman says:

Yeomans said that with new radar capabilities at Goldstone in California — part of NASA’s Deep Space Network — there is a good chance of obtaining radar imaging of 2005 YU55 down to the 5-meter resolution level. Doing so, he said, would mean obtaining higher spatial resolution of the object than that attained by recent spacecraft flyby missions.

“So we like to think of this opportunity as a close flyby mission with Earth as the spacecraft,” Yeomans told SPACE.com. “When combined with ground-based optical and near-infrared observations, the radar data should provide a fairly complete picture of one of the larger potentially hazardous asteroids,” he said.

More about this flyby is available on the Fox News posting which you can read by clicking here.

There is an interesting site that daily posts the upcoming near Earth fly bys and can be seen by clicking here.

cbdakota

ASTEROID NEAR MISS-NOV 6 09


On Friday  November 6th there was an asteroid near miss.  This was a small asteroid that came within 14,000km of Earth.  It was only spotted a short time before it made its pass at Earth.

Asteroids of a certain size could cause real problems for we Earthlings.  Much bigger issue than global warming.  There are people scanning the skys for Asteroids.  When one is found, calculations are made to determine if they present a real danger  —(I am not very confident that we are prepared to deflect the body away from Earth if it were a danger).  You might be interested in some observations about the most recent miss, and a longer ranged view of the consequences of a strike.

If so,  look at this one for comments about the Nov. 6th asteroid  here.

This site charts the close ones every day,   click here and page down to near the bottom of the site to see Near-Earth Asteroids.

And click here for a site that give some history and a cool video of the consequences of a major asteroid strike

Cbdakota