Did you hear the buzz last eve?

[orion25]

A "new" asteroid buzzed between the Earth and moon last night! Who knew?

Here's the story: http://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-pass-between-earth-and-moon-jan-25-2017-0445-utc

 

[Stub Mandrel]

My daughter said something like this a happened a week or so ago as well.

 

[Ben the Ignorant]

Happens all the time. Shooting stars are like smaller asteroids, asteroids are like bigger shooting stars.

[LukeSkywatcher]

25 minutes ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Happens all the time. Shooting stars are like smaller asteroids, asteroids are like bigger shooting stars.

Shooting Stars (Meteors) are mere grains of cosmic dust left over from the tails of comets (most smaller than a grain of salt) burning up in the atmosphere. Asteroids are a whole different ball game. 

A "meteor" becomes a "meteorite" if it is big enough not to burn up completely on entry and makes land fall.

 

[orion25]

48 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Shooting Stars (Meteors) are mere grains of cosmic dust left over from the tails of comets (most smaller than a grain of salt) burning up in the atmosphere. Asteroids are a whole different ball game. 

A "meteor" becomes a "meteorite" if it is big enough not to burn up completely on entry and makes land fall.

 

Yes, Paul, asteroids are in a whole different league. I don't usually keep up with near-asteroid news (maybe we all should, huh?) but I thought this was noteworthy and interesting, only 160,000 miles from us, wow!

[LukeSkywatcher]

3 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Yes, Paul, asteroids are in a whole different league. I don't usually keep up with near-asteroid news (maybe we all should, huh?) but I thought this was noteworthy and interesting, only 160,000 miles from us, wow!

160,000 miles?...........Yikes!!!!!!!!.

Thats like half way between the Earth and Moon (less even). How did this not make headline news around the world?.

In saying this, if anything was going to wipe us out........i dont think i'd want to know about it beforehand.

How big was this one?.

[orion25]

3 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

160,000 miles?...........Yikes!!!!!!!!.

Thats like half way between the Earth and Moon (less even). How did this not make headline news around the world?.

In saying this, if anything was going to wipe us out........i dont think i'd want to know about it beforehand.

How big was this one?.

It was estimated to be between 4-14 metres, moving at 4.62 mps (@ 17,000 mph). It was just discovered a few days ago (Jan. 20) at Pan-STARRS 1 in Haleakala, HI. 

[orion25]

Here is another link to the story:

http://www.space.com/35446-small-asteroid-rerun-2017-bx-buzzes-earth.html

and a YouTube link to the SLOOH observation of the event from the Canary Islands:

 

[rockettsue]

thanks. yes saw this earlier on twitter,  I enjoyed watching

[laudropb]

Very interesting video. Thanks for posting.

[LukeSkywatcher]

2 hours ago, orion25 said:

It was estimated to be between 4-14 metres, moving at 4.62 mps (@ 17,000 mph)! It was just discovered a few days ago (Jan. 20) at Pan-STARRS 1 in Haleakala, HI. I agree, this should have been headline news!

Between 4-14 metres........a mere baby. Not really worth declaring the "end of the world" for.

[orion25]

37 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Between 4-14 metres........a mere baby. Not really worth declaring the "end of the world" for.

Yes, nowhere near Toutatis-size (thank goodness!) or even 367943 Duende. But, it seems like overall there would have been more of a buzz, at least as a curiosity

[orion25]

4 hours ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Happens all the time. Shooting stars are like smaller asteroids, asteroids are like bigger shooting stars.

Shooting stars are usually quite small fragments of comets or asteroids. Asteroids themselves, however, can be very large. Fortunately, this one was only between 4-14 metres.

[Hawksmoor]

Would have made a proper mess of our backyard and put the wind up our neighbour's cat!

George  

[orion25]

46 minutes ago, Hawksmoor said:

Would have made a proper mess of our backyard and put the wind up our neighbour's cat!

George  

True that, George, lol!

[SonnyE]

Uhh, well, no.

1. We were clouded up here.

2. I think I might be on the wrong side of the Globe.

3. And I'd bet I was: A. Asleep. Or B. Watching TV. Or C. Asleep in front of the TV.

In any event, I missed it... As usual.

[Dave In Vermont]

Geeze, Reggie! I think you've stumbled into a new avenue of observing: Minor-Planets!

As an aside - have you gotten your first copy of the Daily Minor-Planet yet? And as you've drawn an audience, me thinks I'll tell folks about this:

If you'd like to be kept up-to-date on the rocks-in-space, you should check out the Minor Planet Center. This being the public-site. And you can subscribe for a daily email-copy of their paper: The Daily Minor-Planet. This is only a month or so since they first offered this service to us. And it's completely free-of-charge. You'll get a cool profile & chart of the next Earth-Crosser asteroid along with an orbital-chart of the beast:

http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/daily-minor-planet

You'll find the Subscribe box on the upper-right corner.

Enjoy!

Dave