MetaFilter posts tagged with asteroid

Giant pebbles from outer space

twoleftfeet — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:48 -0800

Stephen Hawking: "Asteroid Impacts Biggest Threat to Intelligent Life in the Galaxy" Dare I say... there's more outside. In a world distracted by global warming, struggles in Iran, and the death of Michael Jackson, it's hard to focus on the very long-term. But it's more than likely that the Earth will experience another event like Tunguska eventually. We're really at the infancy of deflecting a hazardous near-Earth object.

Asteroid Probe Set to "Collide" With Earth

eiro0701 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:08:23 -0800

A 1,124-pound (510-kilogram) space probe will "collide" with our home planet in June 2010 to simulate an approaching asteroid, Japanese scientists have announced. "We will monitor its movements, and the data will enable us to accurately predict the future paths of asteroids that are on course to come close to the Earth."

A dot in the sky, a rock in the hand

fantabulous timewaster — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:34:57 -0800

A dot in the sky becomes a rock in the hand. An asteroid near miss (as opposed to the more recent near hit) is the first time an object first seen in space is brought back to the laboratory. Technical and nontechnical papers at Nature, possibly behind a paywall.

The sky is falling

zeoslap — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:10:26 -0800

In the wake of a rather large meteor narrowly missing earth, loud booms have been heard from coast to coast. Here's hoping that's the end of it and there isn't something, larger on the way...

LOL Asteroid.

kldickson — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:34:37 -0800

Asteroid in the Sydney Morning Herald. An asteroid as big as a ten-story building passed by Earth. What do you think should have been done about it? It came within 600000 km of our atmosphere.

Objects in Space

Artw — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:44:06 -0800

Do gravity holes harbour planetary assassins?

Black Holes, Killer Asteroids and Spaghetti-fication, oh my!

jamaro — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:08:29 -0800

You're Going to Die II: The always entertaining astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discusses a few of the ways the cosmos could kill you, for City Arts & Lectures. [previously]

Nuclear Urbanism

homunculus — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 21:06:33 -0800

Ground Zero. This Google Maps mashup shows the thermal damage caused by various nuclear weapons or an asteroid on the city of your choice.

Monolith delivery?

JaredSeth — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:13:12 -0800

Discovered just last night by the Catalina Sky Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, asteroid 2008 TC will enter the upper atmosphere (and should explode spectacularly) over Northern Sudan in around 30 minutes.

A massive asteroid from outer space heads straight for earth...

grippycat — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:40:06 -0800

The End Of All Things.

“A most dread portent took place, the sun gave forth its light without brightness.”

stbalbach — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:33:17 -0800

The Atlantic has an interesting article about the high probability of "space rocks" hitting the earth, possibly as high as a 1 in 10 chance of a major catastrophe each century. Not a new theme, but the article has some new developments suggesting it is more common than once thought. Includes a 10 minute video.

And They Would've Gotten Away With It If Not For That Meddling German Kid

wendell — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:55:02 -0800

Enough bad news, enough gloom and doom. You remember that Asteroid 99942 Apophis that we were afraid might hit Earth in 2029? Ain't gonna happen. But it will get close enough for Earth's gravity to alter its orbit and there's a chance it could hit the next time around in 2036. But only a tiny chance: "less than 1 in 45,000 using standard dynamical models". according to NASA. Oh wait... NASA just got skooled by a 13-year-old German Astronomy Geek who says the chances are more like 1 in 450. Still a tiny chance, and the official numbers were only off by a factor of 100. Oh yeah, we're doomed.

Run away! Run away!

starkeffect — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:27:44 -0800

Will asteroid 2007 TU24 devastate our planet due to "magnetic reconnection"? Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait doesn't think so.

Bad news for the Martian dinosaurs...

math — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:28:57 -0800

There's a slight chance that an asteroid could impact Mars at the end of this month. Usually, collisions between heavenly bodies have vanishingly small odds (a million to one, say), but the chances on this one have been steadily improving, from 350-to-1 to 75-to-1 to 25-to-1 (link to Washington Post). Scientists say that this could be comprable to the famous Tunguska blast in Siberia a hundred years ago (not to be confused with this other Tunguska blast). Sadly, this event would not be visible to the naked eye. However, Mars itself is just past opposition right now, which means it's rising in the east just as the sun sets, and shines brilliantly throughout the night. And who knows? Maybe if the asteroid hits the hidden Martian nuclear weapons base, we could get a really spectacular explosion!

Doctor Steel versus The Hammer of God

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:25:20 -0800

Not only does Dr. Duncan Steel have a manly name, he's also one of the guys responsible for keeping those pesky asteroids away from Earth.

Armageddon's Deep Impact

blahblahblah — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:47:01 -0800

An interactive map of the 174 major meteor impact craters. The largest crater we know of is the Vredefort Dome in South Africa, caused by a meteor some 10 km in diameter. Almost as large in the Sudbury Structure, located in Ontario, which contains some of the world's richest nickel and copper reserves, and has been only confirmed recently to be a crater. Third largest is the now-famous Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan, which probably killed the dinosaurs. Then take a look at an animation of asteroids near Earth [animated gif] and the list of minor planets that could hit us. Want to find out what happens when an meteor impacts in your area? Use the handy Earth Impacts Effects Program!

Pa pa pa pa!

badlydubbedboy — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 08:51:59 -0800

BBC News: UK Iconic cinema music gets a makeover (real video) A 30-piece orchestra has recorded a new version of the Pearl and Dean's iconic cinema music (aka Asteroid) at Abbey Road Studios in London. The tune, famous for its "pa pa pa pas", has been made more than a minute and a half longer. David Sillito reports for BBC News.

There can be no escape. . .

absalom — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:10:10 -0800

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory recently detected [reg required] the largest explosion ever detected in the universe: an eruption releasing the energy of hundreds of millions of gamma ray bursts. Just to put it in perspective, a single GRB releases enough radiation to wipe out just about everything human beings would require for survival in a 1000 light year radius. (The Milky Way spans ~100,000 light years, while the United Federation of Planets spans about 8,000). Arthur C. Clarke has gone so far as suggesting that GRBs might be one of the reasons for Extra-Terrestrial silence: Gamma Ray Bursts are so large and inescapable, a single one would wipe out even an enormous galactic empire. Makes killer asteroids seem downright quaint.

Duck and cover

Mwongozi — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:27:02 -0800

Go home, children, you're all about to die.

Note to self: Do not build summer home in Iran.

qDot — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 12:25:36 -0800

Meteorite hits Northern Iran. Wrath of (insert deity of choice here) continues.

Oooh my 'roids.

Frasermoo — Tue, 02 Sep 2003 01:14:53 -0800

Near Earth Objects A newly discovered 1.2 km wide asteroid has been given a Torino hazard rating of 1. Astronomers will continue to observe the space rock carefully to determine its orbit more accurately. [link via BBC Radio 5]<

gottabefunky — Fri, 30 Aug 2002 07:37:31 -0800

Giant asteroid hurtling toward your planet? Don't know what to do? Don't call Bruce Willis. Just build a giant airbag and nudge the sucker away.

tankboy — Tue, 23 Jul 2002 19:25:24 -0800

Gotterdammerung. It's big, it's bad, and it's due in 2019. Dammit, who's going to rock me to sleep tonight? [via /.]

anser — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:45:59 -0800

An asteroid the size of a football field just missed the Earth last Friday. Coming in fast out of the sun, where we ain't watching, it missed us by an astro-paltry 75,000 miles (a third the distance to the Moon). If it had hit, the impact would have been about 10 megatons -- not a planet-killer, but enough to spoil your picnic.

In related news, Attorney General Ashcroft arrested a box of moon rocks and the entire staff of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA for questioning. The director of the Office of Orbital Security was at a pro-am golf tournament in Fond du Lac, WI and unavailable for a statement.

Geo — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 03:36:19 -0800

We should get to know our nearest neighbors. Especially when some are potentially hazardous. We've blown a kiss to 433 Eros and she has revealed some of her secrets.