Asteroid 2005 YU55

[aldrin89]

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The bad news first: An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will be hurtling toward Earth and is expected to fly between the Earth and the moon on Tuesday. The good news: The space rock will not, repeat not, hit Earth. Even though NASA has classified asteroid 2005 YU55 as a "potentially hazardous object." Even though it will pass closer than all other large asteroids have done in the past 35 years. It will do just that: pass by.
But the 1,300-foot-wide object, which will be just 201,700 miles away from Earth, offers a rare scientific opportunity. "Asteroids have passed this close or even closer in the past, but astronomers have not had as much advance notice," noted Bing Quock, assistant director of the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences, in an email to Yahoo! News.
Quock added that the early alert, coupled with the asteroid's proximity to Earth, will allow NASA to map the surface of this particular asteroid "to quite a spectacular resolution that's usually available only by sending spacecraft up close to the object." The last time an asteroid flew this close to Earth was in 1976. The next time won't be until 2028.
To get a good read of the huge space rock, scientists at NASA will engage a 230-foot-long antenna out of the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California. The giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico will also capture images of the asteroid, starting at 3:28 p.m. PT on November 8.
Fun fact for amateur astronomers: The asteroid is actually moving too fast for the Hubble Space Telescope, but, according to CNN, you could spot it with a telescope of at least 6 inches in diameter. Track the asteroid here.
Space fans are keeping tabs on "asteroid 2005 YU55" on the Web: Searches on the term rose to the stratosphere in just one day. Popular lookups also included "asteroid November 8 2011," "near earth asteroid 2011," and "asteroid near misses." For the record, there have been a few asteroids that have come close -- in planetary terms -- to Earth. A bus-sized asteroid narrowly missed the planet back in June.

Close encounter of an asteroid kind | The Upshot - Yahoo! News

Close Shave Asteroid 2005 YU55 Bombarded by Radio Waves | Space.com

[aldrin89]

sir rodsky, makita ni ninyo?

[rodsky]

sir rodsky, makita ni ninyo?

If I had a telescope I can. I doubt it if I can spot it using binoculars, but yes I know exactly where it's going to pass through--right across Pegasus.

-RODION

[rodsky]

UPDATE:

As a correction to what I said earlier, after a long session of determining the times and path of the asteroid across the sky, I realized nga the passage of this piece of rock won't be observed here in our country. As reference, check this image I made off Celestia:



In this image, I encircled the Philippines in green, to the left. Meanwhile, at this point in time (November 9 at around 6:00 AM), the GREEN X marks the spot where the asteroid will be, so no chance for us here in the Philippines to observe, and even if we were in the right spot, you'd need above average equipment to observe it well.

ANOTHER UPDATE/CORRECTION:

It turns out, basin naay chance makit-an, in the evening of November 9, from the Philippines, but by that time, pahawa na ang asteroid, and is located near Pegasus.

-RODION

[aldrin89]

wow brilliant dalia ka compute oi... naa bay possible sir nga mga track nato ang asteroid iyang cluster, i mean asa siya dapit nga tapok sa mga asteriods.

[rodsky]

wow brilliant dalia ka compute oi... naa bay possible sir nga mga track nato ang asteroid iyang cluster, i mean asa siya dapit nga tapok sa mga asteriods.

Wala ma'y "tapok"...asteroids rarely tapokize--they are independent wanderers. The reason why people tend to think nga mag "tapok" sila is because they indeed are usually found in the asteroid belt.

A good analogy is this. Supposing there was a place called "loner's park", you might tend to conclude, "AHA! Kaning Loner's Park, diri siguro gatapok tanang lonely people...". Well, looking at this situation, how can you then conclude nga mag-tapok ang loners sa loner's park, when the fact is nga LONERS lagi na sila--dili na sila mag tapok like a regular group. Thus, you will find loners sa loner's park, pero don't expect to find them clustered--each loner will be alone and doing something by himself or herself.

-RODION

[Saickiek]

myta naay pics na naglandfall na ang asteroid.hehe

[rodsky]

myta naay pics na naglandfall na ang asteroid.hehe

a) This asteroid will not make landfall--if it did, it would cause a 7-magnitude quake within 100 kilometers of the impact area and churn up enough dust to blot out the sun for a week (if landed on solid ground), or cause a tsunami 200 meters high and flood any nearby coastal cities. Granted, not the end of the world, but damage would be quite significant.

b) There are indeed (radar) photos of the asteroid:


-RODION

[Inting Butikol]

NASA - NASA Captures New Images of Large Asteroid Passing Earth



amazing!!!

[pocketbell]

whew! wish dli mu uwan or dli mag dag-om para kita sad ta..