Asteroid break-up 'never seen before'

[Delta4Embassy]

Hubble Witnesses Asteroid's Mysterious Disintegration - NASA Science

"March 6, 2014: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the never-before-seen break-up of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces. Fragile comets, comprised of ice and dust, have been seen falling apart as they approach the sun, but nothing like this has ever before been observed in the asteroid belt.

"This is a rock, and seeing it fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing," said David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the astronomical forensics investigation. "

more at link

 

[Moonglow]

Better the rocks than another space shuttle...

 

[Mr. H.]

Remember the asteroid that broke up and smacked into Jupiter. That was cool.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Remember the asteroid that broke up and smacked into Jupiter. That was cool.

That was actually a comet. This one was a rocky asteroid, not a 'dirty snowball' as with comets.

 

[strollingbones]

Remember the asteroid that broke up and smacked into Jupiter. That was cool.

That was actually a comet. This one was a rocky asteroid, not a 'dirty snowball' as with comets.

comet, asteroid...*shrugs*

i am attempting to watch this 'ted' series.....where professors give lectures...omg i dont even feel the wind move my hair

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Difference matters. Asteroids hit the planet every day. Most skip off the atmosphere, some burn up, some make it to the ground (usually the ocean.) But a comet is much rarer thank goodness. The ones that hit Jupiter would have completely shattered the planet Earth. Last one that hit Earth for sure was 28 million years ago:

First Evidence Found of a Comet Strike on Earth

 

[editec]

Remember the asteroid that broke up and smacked into Jupiter. That was cool.

That was actually a comet. This one was a rocky asteroid, not a 'dirty snowball' as with comets.

Ait..I thought the difference between asteroid and comet was merely size...

checks the net

Hmmmm.... I was wrong.

Carry on Delta and thank you for educating me this morning.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Speaking of size, a 1.8KM asteroid tumbled by yesterday. Was no where near us, at 64LD away, but it's one of those potential 'extinction level event' types they track. For comparison, the object that's believed responsible for the dinosaur extinction was about 10KM in size. Currently, the real concern is one named Apophis due to fly by in 2029. While not expected to hit then, it's gonna loop and fly-by again in 2036, and that pass they're less sure of. Apophis is 210-330 meters.

The good news is the big worrisome ones are easy to spot and track and plot orbits for, it's the small ones like the Russian impacter that are greater threats, that one came out of the Sun so took us completely by surprise. Even when they don't, we don't usually notice them until they're a day or so away.

Predicting Apophis' Earth Encounters in 2029 and 2036

The 2036 pass will be on April 13th. Expect a glut of 'Mayan Doomsday' like stories in the years just before.

 

[strollingbones]

the hits on jupiter were amazing.....

that is the site that rates such things .....as the level of threat the earth faces

great site...

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Probability is nice, but if giving the potential threat they should figure out the nuclear-equivilent. Final tally of the Russia fireball event was like 400 kilotons (Hiroshima was ~15 kilotons.) Only reason it didn't flattern that city was it airburst. I worry we're not going to take asteroid defense seriously until we lose a city or mega-tsunami is generated.

 

[strollingbones]

i think people take them seriously but are just overwhelmed by the lack of ability to do anything about it......gives me chills

 

[strollingbones]

i wonder where the doomsdayers plan to 'bug out' if a comet is predicted to hit?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Can do something about the little ones, just gotta have the will to deploy the existing systems which could like ABM and now-deploying railguns but en masse'. Hit these will hyper-velocity projectiles and the combined kientic energy is more than sufficient to shatter them. Bigger ones still in space are more problematic. But if you catch em early enough are options. Worst case, depending on projected point of impact, may be worth nuking them once inside the atmosphere if you can time it that well. Nukes don't do in space what they do inside the atmosphere so nuking it outside the atmosphere wouldn't be as fruitful. No shockwave or thermal effects most notably. Figured that out with operation Starfish during nuclear testing days.

 

[strollingbones]

dont bigger ones just become smaller ones and still hit the earth? somehow the idea of a nuclear explosion just at the edge of space....doesnt give me a warm feeling...well i am sure it would