Asteroid 2005 YU55 to Approach Earth on November 8, 2011
Near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass within 0.85 lunar distances from the Earth on November 8, 2011. The upcoming close approach by this relatively large 400 meter-sized, C-type asteroid presents an excellent opportunity for synergistic ground-based observations including optical, near infrared and radar data. The attached animated illustration shows the Earth and moon flyby geometry for November 8th and 9th when the object will reach a visual brightness of 11th magnitude and should be easily visible to observers in the northern and southern hemispheres. The closest approach to Earth and the Moon will be respectively 0.00217 AU and 0.00160 AU on 2011 November 8 at 23:28 and November 9 at 07:13 UT.
Assuming it’s in the same plane as the earth and moon, my concern is that, since it will be crossing the moon’s orbit twice, that it might get there the same time as the moon does. This could kick up a great deal of rubble that could shower down on the earth. (I know, we could keep tabs on it by watching it through the rubble telescope.)
Occam
(So Domokato, is being a wise-ass nerd worse than being a plain nerd?]
Assuming it’s in the same plane as the earth and moon, my concern is that, since it will be crossing the moon’s orbit twice, that it might get there the same time as the moon does. This could kick up a great deal of rubble that could shower down on the earth. (I know, we could keep tabs on it by watching it through the rubble telescope.)
Occam
(So Domokato, is being a wise-ass nerd worse than being a plain nerd?]
Assuming it’s in the same plane as the earth and moon, my concern is that, since it will be crossing the moon’s orbit twice, that it might get there the same time as the moon does. This could kick up a great deal of rubble that could shower down on the earth. (I know, we could keep tabs on it by watching it through the rubble telescope.)
Occam
(So Domokato, is being a wise-ass nerd worse than being a plain nerd?]
Heh heh heh You missed us! You missed us! Now you’ve got to kiss us!
I suppose if it had hit the Moon, some impact rubble could hit us, but despite that chance… damn do I want to see the Moon get nailed! That would be great! To hell with the Monster Truck rallies! It’s not as though the Moon hasn’t been hit before. No-one is living there, yet. I wonder if we could schedule it for the fourth of July? People got excited when Jupiter got nailed.
I suppose if it had hit the Moon, some impact rubble could hit us, but despite that chance… damn do I want to see the Moon get nailed! That would be great! To hell with the Monster Truck rallies! It’s not as though the Moon hasn’t been hit before. No-one is living there, yet. I wonder if we could schedule it for the fourth of July? People got excited when Jupiter got nailed.
I suppose a physicist could figure it out, but I wonder just how big a piece of debris would have to be to affect the orbit of the moon enough to affect us? Either by pushing it significantly further out, or bringing it significantly closer. I know the moon is moving away from us incrementally, but what if something hurried it along?
Well if the impact that formed our twin planet, the Moon, couldn’t significantly change our orbit around the Sun or our Grand Finalé dance with the Moon, the dance where we pirouette as our twin Moon faces us while backing away, then a little asteroid won’t affect the orbit or rotation much either. I mean compare our orbit and rotation to the other planets without twins, ours isn’t kooky compared to the others, so not even a force big enough to nearly split the Earth in two can change that. The rotation and the orbit of Earth and Moon is not to worry.
F = mv^2
So a change in the velocity matters more than a change in the mass, and velocity is easier to change than mass, for a collision.
Calculating orbits is more involved and not my field.
Crap! Everytime I place my planet I either hit the sun or create an elliptical orbit that would fry everything on Earth. I’d make a lousy god! But I can see where this game could be used in an astronomy class. I’m passing along the site to out Earth Science teacher.
Young man! You will not get any work from NASA until you can create a stable geosynchronous orbit with your planet, and I don’t want to hear anymore of your smart remarks, just do your homework!
Math class should have more play, more simulations, more video games.
Its not to early to give a hint for the orbit game is it? [ You just click-and-drag a vector that is tangent to the orbit you want. Imagine a good circular orbit, then make a tangent line to it with your planet. The length of the vertor depends on how far the planet is from the Sun, mine was about this (—————) far from the Sun, and about this (——————-) long a vector. ] Good luck.
