Watch a near-miss LIVE tonight.
February 17, 2014 5:21 PM Subscribe
Monday, Feb. 17, at approximately 9:00p.m. EST, the Slooh space telescope will broadcast a live video stream . Asteroid-NEA 2000 EM26, will come no closer than 8.8 lunar distances from Earth -- a measure of the distance between us and the moon.
The image stream will be accompanied by discussions led by Slooh host and astronomer, Bob Berman, Slooh technical director, Paul Cox., and special guest, Dr. Mark Boslough, an expert on planetary impacts and global catastrophes.
The image stream will be accompanied by discussions led by Slooh host and astronomer, Bob Berman, Slooh technical director, Paul Cox., and special guest, Dr. Mark Boslough, an expert on planetary impacts and global catastrophes.
Have we ever witnessed asteroid impacts with the moon?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:25 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:25 PM on February 17, 2014
Still half an hour to go so in the meantime enjoy the music of Ramon Raquello and his Orchestra, live from New York's Hotel Park Plaza
posted by hal9k at 5:30 PM on February 17, 2014 [15 favorites]
posted by hal9k at 5:30 PM on February 17, 2014 [15 favorites]
its the size of three football fields...about three acres. It would devastate the moon methinks...but SHOULD miss it they say.
posted by shockingbluamp at 5:33 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by shockingbluamp at 5:33 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wait, can I see this thing from my house? I would really like to be able to see this thing from my house.
posted by dogheart at 5:45 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by dogheart at 5:45 PM on February 17, 2014
Yeah i want to see - I just recently learned how to do long exposure photos and I really want to take pictures!
posted by littlesq at 5:49 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by littlesq at 5:49 PM on February 17, 2014
Well it's a couple of hours too late for me to stock up on canned goods.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 5:51 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 5:51 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
On a related note, lowflyingrocks is a twitter account that lets you know every time a (known) object sails past us like this. There are usually a couple every day.
posted by lucidium at 5:52 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by lucidium at 5:52 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Then let us sing.
We'll meeeet aaaagaaaain don't know where don't know wheeeeeeen
posted by The Whelk at 5:52 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
We'll meeeet aaaagaaaain don't know where don't know wheeeeeeen
posted by The Whelk at 5:52 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Looking down from the space station flying overhead, the sight of a billion people on over half the dark side of the earth taking pictures of the moon.... with their flash on.
It's full of stars.
posted by hal9k at 5:53 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's full of stars.
posted by hal9k at 5:53 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I can't believe I actually found out about this 5 minutes before instead of the day after like usual.
posted by double block and bleed at 5:56 PM on February 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by double block and bleed at 5:56 PM on February 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
Bring it, Asteroid-NEA 2000 EM26, we're stronger than the dinosaurs and will not be defeated.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:57 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:57 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
What time is it supposed to reach its minimum distance? All I see is the time that the streaming starts.
posted by Flunkie at 5:58 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Flunkie at 5:58 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I think that was the countdown to overwhelming their server instead of the one for viewing the asteroid.
posted by ceribus peribus at 6:05 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by ceribus peribus at 6:05 PM on February 17, 2014
(The direct youtube stream is working for me)
posted by ceribus peribus at 6:08 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by ceribus peribus at 6:08 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
I've googled around a bit and I just kind find any citation for the expected time of closest approach.
posted by benito.strauss at 6:10 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by benito.strauss at 6:10 PM on February 17, 2014
Wikipedia claims that "Closest approach (perigee-geocentrical) will occur around 00:15 UTC on 18 February plus or minus about 13 hours. The minimum possible close approach distance to Earth on 18 February 2014 is 0.018 AU (2,700,000 km; 1,700,000 mi)."
posted by Flunkie at 6:11 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Flunkie at 6:11 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Didn't the host just say they lost track of this object in 2009 & are hoping to re-acquire it tonight "if it is where it's supposed to be?" I'd figure there's some slop in that 4-year window.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:14 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:14 PM on February 17, 2014
Have we ever witnessed asteroid impacts with the moon?
Oui.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:15 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Oui.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:15 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Naming an asteroid Apophis seems a bit too much like tempting fate to me.
posted by dogheart at 6:17 PM on February 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by dogheart at 6:17 PM on February 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
If there's any chance an object could destroy human civilization it shouldn't be named Skippy the Wonderoid.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:28 PM on February 17, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:28 PM on February 17, 2014 [5 favorites]
Didn't the host just say they lost track of this object in 2009 & are hoping to re-acquire it tonight "if it is where it's supposed to be?" I'd figure there's some slop in that 4-year window.
He said they looked for where it should be in 2006 and 2009 and were unable to find it. It hasn't been seen since 2000, they're looking for it right now on the first images. So you know, that's comforting.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:33 PM on February 17, 2014
He said they looked for where it should be in 2006 and 2009 and were unable to find it. It hasn't been seen since 2000, they're looking for it right now on the first images. So you know, that's comforting.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:33 PM on February 17, 2014
Bring it, Asteroid-NEA 2000 EM26, we're stronger than the dinosaurs and will not be defeated.
If you could not aggro the asteroids that'd be great.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:37 PM on February 17, 2014 [9 favorites]
If you could not aggro the asteroids that'd be great.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:37 PM on February 17, 2014 [9 favorites]
Yeah, look at when Jupiter started giving crap to Shoemaker-Levy.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:38 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by Chrysostom at 6:38 PM on February 17, 2014
Either someone on the live feed has some kind of computer notification beeping every now and again or I am going bonkers.
posted by sparklemotion at 6:41 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by sparklemotion at 6:41 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I just tuned into the YouTube stream. I uh… what do they mean they can't find it?
posted by ob1quixote at 6:42 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by ob1quixote at 6:42 PM on February 17, 2014
Ah, I see. They found it again for the first time since 2000. Nevermind.
posted by ob1quixote at 6:46 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by ob1quixote at 6:46 PM on February 17, 2014
So we lost an asteroid the size of three football fields. That's no big deal. Don't worry, it'll show up.
Somewhere.
posted by double block and bleed at 6:47 PM on February 17, 2014 [5 favorites]
Somewhere.
posted by double block and bleed at 6:47 PM on February 17, 2014 [5 favorites]
Well, no, they haven't spotted it again, which is kind of unnerving.
posted by maggieb at 6:49 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by maggieb at 6:49 PM on February 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wake me when the "just here to kill time / fill dead air" yammering voices are interrupted by something actually interesting happening.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:50 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:50 PM on February 17, 2014
...Unless the giant BOOOOM wakes me up first, of course.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:51 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:51 PM on February 17, 2014
This is what they get for naming the asteroid Waldo.
posted by sparklemotion at 6:52 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by sparklemotion at 6:52 PM on February 17, 2014
maggieb: “Well, no, they haven't spotted it again, which is kind of unnerving.”Oh. I see. So, we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
posted by ob1quixote at 6:52 PM on February 17, 2014
If I'm reading it correctly this graph suggests we've probably spotted most of the really large NEOs, but only know about a small portion of the ones under 100m or so.
posted by lucidium at 6:57 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by lucidium at 6:57 PM on February 17, 2014
Uh oh, looks like it was first discovered by an amateur astronomer named Tim Hamner.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:14 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by Chrysostom at 8:14 PM on February 17, 2014
Have we ever witnessed asteroid impacts with the moon?
Many times. Here's a video showing one recent impact, it would have been visible from Earth by naked eye.
This was a fiasco. The server was dead during the live event. Now the replay says they did not get any images at all. How the hell am I supposed to know if the Earth was wiped out by a direct hit?
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:52 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Many times. Here's a video showing one recent impact, it would have been visible from Earth by naked eye.
This was a fiasco. The server was dead during the live event. Now the replay says they did not get any images at all. How the hell am I supposed to know if the Earth was wiped out by a direct hit?
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:52 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
This was a fiasco.
I'm starting to think going short on iridium may indeed have been a mistake.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:01 PM on February 17, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm starting to think going short on iridium may indeed have been a mistake.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:01 PM on February 17, 2014 [4 favorites]
Now the replay says they did not get any images at all.
What?? You mean I missed the nothing? Now what am I going to complain about tomorrow at work?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:22 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
What?? You mean I missed the nothing? Now what am I going to complain about tomorrow at work?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:22 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Have we ever witnessed asteroid impacts with the moon?
Depends how you define "asteroid." A boulder-sized impact was observed last year (direct NASA link if Slate is too annoying for you>), and there are smaller impacts fairly frequently (as there are on Earth).
posted by aught at 6:53 AM on February 18, 2014
Depends how you define "asteroid." A boulder-sized impact was observed last year (direct NASA link if Slate is too annoying for you>), and there are smaller impacts fairly frequently (as there are on Earth).
posted by aught at 6:53 AM on February 18, 2014
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posted by Kitteh at 5:22 PM on February 17, 2014