An asteroid barely missed Earth last week, and no one knew it was coming

[Admin]

Asteroid 2021 UA1, a space rock about the of a refrigerator, made a surprise appearance when it recently flew past Earth.

An asteroid barely missed Earth last week, and no one knew it was coming : Read more

 

[sam85geo]

We need better, more effective detection. Or perhaps "One of these days, POW, right in the kisser".

 

[Pogo]

Yeah, that happened with the Chelyabinsk object, right from the Sun direction. Can’t visualize it, and radar is effective for larger objects at a closer distance. The Sun direction is our blind spot.

 

[Aplu]

Aren't there a couple of otherwise excess space telescopes aka spy satellite telescopes the CIA gifted NASA with, a few years back? What's wrong with dedicating them to Spaceguard duty, keeping track of asteroids on a potential collision course with Earth?

 

[sam85geo]

Finding those "out of the Sun" blind spot incoming space "rocks" is only half of the equation. Those "rocks" that could hit Earth need to be intercepted/deflected. IMO, there is a plethora of anti-social types, myself included, who would gladly have a government job of shooting down, up or anyways incoming space "rocks", (or whatever) .

 

[Pogo]

@Aplu: problem is that when you look at an object at night, you’re looking at the sunlit side, it’s bright. An object coming in from the Sun direction, you’re looking at the night or dark side of the object in a bright sky, just can’t see it. Radar is only effective so far, the smaller the object, the closer it gets before radar sees it. At the speeds these things fly, they get pretty close time wise before you detect them. It would require a lot of high powered radar to cover the entire sky, which would likely be detrimental to other things.

@sam85geo: If you blow up a 100 tonne asteroid, you now get a buncha rocks heading in pretty much the same trajectory, no such thing as destroying it. mass before equals mass after, just in pieces. Moving in terms of kilometers per second, you won’t affect it’s motion much. These would have to be identified way in advance (perhaps years), then alter its motion slightly so it misses Earth. When you shoot down an aircraft, it still crashes somewhere, doesn’t disappear. Shooting down something that measures in kilometers, it’s still gonna hit. Early diversion is best.

 

[sam85geo]

@Pogo; Your arguments are reasonable and logical. I just think little pieces of a space "rock" would do less damage than a one big piece, and I think that we should have the capability of delivering destructive force, (nuclear) when necessary. I'll admit that I'm a "trigger puller", but I don't know if such would be the best option.

 

[Aplu]

@Pogo and @sam85geo, personally I'd rather have a set of laser-carrying space vehicles (perhaps the size of the Soyuz, or maybe smaller) with power sources and ion drives, that can track and chase an asteroid in a dangerous orbit, and by ablating parts of it, change its orbit somewhat. You wouldn't need to get up close and personal with the asteroid - with a suitable laser, you'd be able to ablate lumps of it at several hundred (or thousand) ks. Less room for theatrics and heroics that way, but more chance of actually getting the job done.

As far as radar and out-of-the-sun asteroids goes, you're looking at a rather narrow area of the sky. Ideal for repurposing early-warning radar sets left over from the "Cold War".

 

[sam85geo]

@Aplu: Great idea and not as dangerous as my affinity for things that use nukes. And best of all, the "Trigger Puller" types could still get their "jollies".