2011 MD Misses Earth

[wizardofid]

So a big fail for NASA...!!!!

Asteroid hurtles within 7,600 miles of Earth... three-and-a-half hours later than predicted by scientists who first thought it was a piece of space junk

An asteroid as large as a small house soared within 7,500miles of Earth yesterday, passing harmlessly over the Atlantic Ocean.The space rock – called 2011 MD – made a hairpin turn around our planet at 6.14 pm GMT, three-and-a-half hours after it had been predicted to whizz by.Red-faced astronomers only discovered the asteroid last week – until then, they thought the small rock was a piece of space junk............

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2011 ... -of-earth/

[rustypup]

So a big fail for NASA...!!!!

how so? it's a big sky out there and this thing was the size of a largish bus, (which could only be mistaken for a house if you were living in hobbit-land). had it "impacted" it would have burned off >99% of its mass in the atmosphere... big woop... i'm struggling to understand what all the fanfare is about...

had it taken out a satellite, that would be news..

should we be watching for those which are big enough to cause real damage or are we going to bleat about every budgie that happens to stray into our neighbourhood?

[wizardofid]

So a big fail for NASA...!!!!

how so? it's a big sky out there and this thing was the size of a largish bus, (which could only be mistaken for a house if you were living in hobbit-land). had it "impacted" it would have burned off >99% of its mass in the atmosphere... big woop... i'm struggling to understand what all the fanfare is about...

had it taken out a satellite, that would be news..

should we be watching for those which are big enough to cause real damage or are we going to bleat about every budgie that happens to stray into our neighbourhood?

Sigh, Mr pup, the issue is not that it is small or large, the joke is that they though it was space junk, and 3 hours late....

You would expect more accurate predictions when it comes to this sort of thing.If you have a look at their newest mission to the outer planets or that they freaking crashed a satellite with all sorts of *insert important scientific instruments here* into one of these-bloody-rocky-stuff-full-of-ice.

So it is not so much the size or that it didn't hit America and rid the rest of the earth of those weirdo Americans, It is more about the fail for not noticing what it was and the late prediction..

go figure !

[KALSTER]

That's like failing a man with one eye for not catching a ball.

[rustypup]

It is more about the fail for not noticing what it was

unless it's carrying its own source of radiance, these things tend to appear uniformly black against a black background... which means the only hint as to their presence is a reflection every so often from the sun or a blank where there should be none... factor in the size and this qualifies more as a sensationalist reporting fail than a NASA fail... seriously... the thing is tiny...

and the late prediction..

when all you have to work on is a glimpse every so often you're not "tracking" the object.. you're predicting its path and speed... factor in the effects of our gravity well, including the moon's, and you're into "between 2 and 10 hours" territory...

honestly... i want you to place a block of granite somewhere, take a 10k KM stroll away from it and tell me how much you can see of the granite...

[wizardofid]

honestly... i want you to place a block of granite somewhere, take a 10k KM stroll away from it and tell me how much you can see of the granite...

Lets put it in terms even a daft dwarf will understand.....

So you spot this object week ago Allah dammit point period.....they knew about it
labeled as space junk and then the prediction was 3 hours late.....

I am not complaining that they didn't know about it sooner or size or this or that....my beef and the fail of note is the late prediction and wrongly labeling it.....there were enough information and time available for an accurate plot....The end.

If they can plan a probe mission for the outer solar system and hit a "small area" to be able for the probe sling shot around the gas giants to increase the speed of the probe.....I bet my left nut they could have predicted better.....

So you want me to spot a piece of granite from 10km, with what I might add, the naked eye? So what you are saying is that they try spot these things does matter how small with the naked eye, ignoring their billion dollar equipment.

I hope you get the point.....but I see you have your mind set on the whole near miss thing, which I never complained about or mentioned....we had closer calls and with much bigger objects big deal.

WTH pup ?

[rustypup]

my beef and the fail of note is the late prediction and wrongly labeling it.....there were enough information and time available for an accurate plot....The end.

you're ignoring any factual content... the initial projection was based on limited sightings using best-guess arithmetic.. when you're working with something "between 16 and 50 miles across" your calculations are going to be stupidly sketchy... the nearest approach was changed multiple times as more data was collected to the point that everyone on the path could point at the sky using the plots provided and get a shot of the interloper...

given the number who did so successfully, we can only assume that the modified "fail" predictions were sufficiently accurate...

So you want me to spot a piece of granite from 10km

not 10km... 10,000km... work that out... then insert an object the size of a small house... then suggest what hardware you would use to not only spot a billion or so visiting our solar system but also reliably determine the mass, velocity and path of each...

if you see no difference between a probe, with all its communications facilities, and a lump of rock you've been watching too much star trek...

[wizardofid]

and a lump of rock you've been watching too much star trek...

Sigh, rolf you made a funny

Yeah I just figured a better estimate than 3 hours....