The good news: NASA boffins spot closest near-Earth asteroid ever. The bad news: We never saw it coming
- Reference: 1597826828
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/19/near_earth_asteroid_2020qg/
- Source link:
It's good news because, [1]as NASA explained , the 15 August flyby of 2020 QG was the closest pass humanity has ever detected and therefore speaks to our enormous cleverness.
"It's quite an accomplishment to find these tiny close-in asteroids in the first place, because they pass by so fast," said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "There's typically only a short window of a couple of days before or after close approach when this small of an asteroid is close enough to Earth to be bright enough but not so close that it moves too fast in the sky to be detected by a telescope."
[2]
The circled streak in the center of this image is asteroid 2020 QG. Credits: ZTF/Caltech Optical Observatories
But the less-good news is that we spotted it on the way out.
As NASA detailed, 2020QG sped past at 12.3 kilometres per second and "was first recorded as just a long streak in a wide-field camera image taken by the Zwicky Transient Facility".
"The image was taken six hours after the closest point of approach as the asteroid was heading away from Earth."
Back to some good news: even if we had failed to spot the rock, it was too small to make it through Earth's atmosphere and do any damage. NASA reckons it would have been visible as a fireball. And those, as your humble hack discovered when walking home a couple of months back, can be awesome as seen in the tweet below depicting my cosmic encounter. ®
A meteor has just been spotted roaring over New South Wales. These pictures were captured on the Central Coast show a ball of light burning with a fiery green tinge. [3]https://t.co/NzTYUwIP33 [4]#7NEWS [5]pic.twitter.com/ecNCY9otYv — 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) [6]July 13, 2020
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[1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/tiny-asteroid-buzzes-by-earth-the-closest-flyby-on-record
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/08/19/nasa_asteroid_2020qg.jpg
[3] https://t.co/NzTYUwIP33
[4] https://twitter.com/hashtag/7NEWS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[5] https://t.co/ecNCY9otYv
[6] https://twitter.com/7NewsSydney/status/1282610484080865280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
School run
"A space rock the size of a sports utility vehicle "
How do they KNOW is was a space rock. I reckon it's just as likely to be an SUV on its way to pick up the kids from Moon School because the poor little darlings can't be asked to walk home on their own.
Bloody SUVs get everywhere these days.
Re: School run
Well of course they had to take the SUV. The roadster is on its way to Mars, but seems to have taken a wrong turn (blame the sat nav)
did anyone really expect my countrymen in this anti-science time to allocate money "just to watch stupid space rocks that are probably just another hoax to scam us out of money to line the pockets of those damn scientists!!!!!"?
[ i weep for my country . . . every day ]
I blame that sports car bloke..
Lobbed his trendo-mobile intp space and obviously someone has retaliated with an SUV.
Re: I blame that sports car bloke..
This thing will be next. I always wondered where it went.
https://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/bomberonmoonsundaysport1.jpg
Was it RED
Did it have a spaceman sitting in the front seat?
Was the radio playing... no, wait a minute!!!
"Thing was the size of a car, moved at 12km/sec, missed us by just 2,950km"
I was going to say that it was probably Elon's Tesla coming back for a service.... but even Tesla's don't go that fast, and the autopilot has more of a reputation for *not* missing things.
"And those, as your humble hack discovered when walking home a couple of months back, can be awesome as seen in the tweet below depicting my cosmic encounter."
Still would have scared the hell out of me though!