Dawn in the Asteroid Belt

onedomino · Sep 26, 2007

On Thursday, the JPL spacecraft Dawn launches for the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. In these days of discord, it is good to realize that we are still making many new discoveries. We are trying to find out new information about the Universe because we have confidence that new knowledge will make us more than we are now. Dawn will visit Ceres and Vesta. Heres a couple of our best current photos of these members of our solar system:

A Hubble Space Telescope view of Texas-sized Ceres. http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=3478

A Hubble photo of Vesta from a distance of 110 million miles. Vesta is only 330 miles in diameter, but it has a 285 mile wide crater. http://library.thinkquest.org/18652/asteroid.html

Shogun · Sep 27, 2007

nice...

keep up the astronomy postings!

waltky · May 17, 2013

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea - an' dey thought dat one dat hit Russia was gonna be a fly-by...

Dark, massive asteroid to fly by Earth on May 31
May 17, 2013, It's 1.7 miles long. Its surface is covered in a sticky black substance similar to the gunk at the bottom of a barbecue. If it impacted Earth it would probably result in global extinction. Good thing it is just making a flyby.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make its closest pass to Earth on May 31 at 1:59 p.m. PDT. Scientists are not sure where this unusually large space rock, which was discovered 15 years ago, originated from. But the mysterious sooty substance on its surface could indicate it may be the result of a comet that flew too close to the sun, said Amy Mainzer, who tracks near-Earth objects at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. It might also have leaked out of the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, she said.

We will know more after the asteroid zips closer to Earth and scientists using the Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico can get a better look at it. Astronomers at both observatories plan to track it closely from May 30 to June 9, according to a JPL release.

The orbit of asteroid 1998 QE2.

At its closest approach the asteroid will still be 3.6 million miles from our planet (about 15 times the distance between the Earth and the moon), but it will be close enough for these powerful radar antennas to see features as small as 12 feet across. "With radar we can transform an object from a point of light into a small world with its own characteristics," Lance Benner, JPL's principal investigator for Goldstone radar observations, said in a statement. There is no chance that asteroid 1998 QE2 could collide with Earth this go-around, and its next close approach won't be until 2119.

Still, Mainzer said the size of the asteroid, and its potential for mass destruction, should remind us that there are some scary things flying around in space. "This is a really big asteroid, similar in size to the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and it's getting very close to us," she said. "Fortunately we've been tracking its orbit very carefully so we know with great certainty it won't hit us. "We don't need to panic, but we do need to pay attention," she said.

Source
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waltky · Oct 21, 2013

Granny says, "Dat's right - dem space aliens done drawed a bead on us...

There's only a 1 in 48,000 chance the Earth could be destroyed in 2032
10/18/2013 ~ NASA says a big asteroid that whizzed by Earth last month unnoticed is probably nothing to worry about when it returns much closer in 19 years.

NASA Near-Earth Object program manager Donald Yeomans said there is a 1 in 48,000 chance that the 1,300-foot asteroid will hit Earth when it comes back on Aug. 26, 2032.

A meteorite contrail from February 2013 is seen over the Ural Mountains of Russia.

The asteroid called 2013 TV135 was discovered Oct. 8, nearly a month after it came within 4.2 million miles of Earth. Yeomans said as astronomers observe and track it better, they will likely calculate that it has no chance of hitting Earth.

Although big, the asteroid is considerably smaller than the type that caused the dinosaur extinction. NASA posted a reality check about the asteroid in response to some media reports.

There's only a 1 in 48,000 chance the Earth could be destroyed in 2032 - Mendocino Beacon
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Dawn in the Asteroid Belt

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Dawn in the Asteroid Belt

onedomino SCE to AUX

Shogun Free: Mudholes Stomped

waltky Wise ol' monkey Supporting Member

waltky Wise ol' monkey Supporting Member

Latest Threads

Stand Up and Be Thankful

Every partisan tool right now is.

Since Weather is Climate These Days with the Hurricanes

Trump calling people son of a bitch for exercising their first amendment rights is beyond the pale

I dont understand how someone becomes gay?

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