'Near miss' asteroid

[spendrey]

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I posted on here. (Maybe 5 years or more)

Was anyone going to try and get a glimpse of this?...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6979750/Mystery-space-asteroid-set-to-pass-close-by-earth-Nasa-says.html

Conditions permitting of course!

[Carole]

Only just seen this post, and the NEO must have already passed.  Any-one got an update?

Carole

[MarkS]

Only just seen this post, and the NEO must have already passed.  Any-one got an update?

Yep - we believe it missed

[Mac]

Yep - we believe it missed

hmmm no so sure.

wasn't there a magnitude 7 earthquake just off of cuba on the 13th.

hmmmmmmmmm coincidence?

Mind you i do like the bit,

Measuring between 33 to 50 feet (10 to 15 meters) wide, experts say it is too small to cause any damage to the earth

true earth probably wont notice it, but im sure a hit in the middle of London sure wont go unnoticed.

[Ian]

true earth probably wont notice it, but im sure a hit in the middle of London sure wont go unnoticed.

You're right. Someone's bound to say "hmm, seems a bit tidy around here today..."

[Rick]

Our best chance of seeing it was last night. The BAA had the following to say:

BAA electronic bulletin No. 00462 -- http://www.britastro.org/
Bulletin transmitted on Mon Jan 11 23:20:47 GMT 2010
(c) 2010 British Astronomical Association

A new object (almost certainly an asteroid) has just been found that will pass within about 80,000 miles of the Earth around midday on January 13 possibly reaching brighter than 14th magnitude around 10:00 UT.  It was discovered on January 10 by LINEAR, specifically by M. Blythe, G. Spitz, R. Brungard, J. Paige, P. Festler of 704 Lincoln Laboratory ETS, New Mexico using a 1.0-m reflector.  Unusually, its orbital period is almost exactly 1.00 year which might mean it could be artificial in nature.  However, its encounter velocity is high as it passes safely by the Earth which means it must almost certainly be of a natural origin, in which case it may be around 10 metres across.

In principle, the object will be visible from the UK between 19:00UT on Jan 12 and 04:00 UT on Jan 13 but unfortunately the UK weather prospects for this time are rather dire!  What's new?  If you do happen to have clear skies then the object will be about 15th magnitude moving quite quickly at 40-120 "/min.

Ephemerides of 2010 AL30 for observing locations worldwide can be found by consulting either the JPL Horizons Web Interface at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top

or the Minor Planet Center Ephemeris Page at: http://scully.cfa.harvard.edu/~cgi/MPEph2

Good luck,

Richard Miles
Director, Asteroids and Remote Planets Section

[Rick]

true earth probably wont notice it, but im sure a hit in the middle of London sure wont go unnoticed.

I believe Milton Keynes is the traditional impact point for objects of this nature. I even know a song about it. If you're very lucky I won't sing it to you.

[Carole]

What I meant was, there was some thought this could be space junk rather than an asteroid, so I wondered whether there was any update on that.

Carole