December's Asteroid just got a lot closer

[tony873004]

Asteroid 2004 MN4 was once thought to have a 1 in 37 chance of hitting Earth on April 13, 2029. But pre-discovery photos helped determine it would miss by 58,000 km.<br /><br />But now new radar observations have caused astronomers to change the closest approach distance to 30,000 km.<br /><br />This asteroid will become a naked-eye object for viewers in Europe, Asia, and Africa. <br />Earth's gravity will boost the small asteroid's orbit almost to the orbit of Mars.<br /><br />** edit, you will not be able to resolve its shape with the naked eye or binoculars. It will be about 2 arcseconds wide. Things need to be about 2 arcminutes wide for the human eye to resolve. My mistake.<br /><br />http://orbitsimulator.com/orbiter/a2004.GIF

 

[silylene old]

wow ! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[shuttle_rtf]

Send up Bruce Willis and his motley crew <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />So, when will they be able to say exactly how much it will miss by?

 

[vogon13]

Maybe Scaled Composites/Virgin Airlines will be motivated to send up a next generation Spaceship One for an as yet to be announced billion dollar prize. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[thechemist]

If it will be a spectacle in 2029, then what about the 2046-04-13.34 encounter ?<br /><br />2004 MN4 is supposed to pass by Earth at 0.04 +/- 1.88e-03 earth radii, <br />or 257 +/- 12 km !!<br /><br />The risk of impact is luckily very low for this encounter, 1 in 53,000.<br /><br />http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2004mn4.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[heyo]

<i> Europe, Asia, and Africa</i><br /><br />A lot of god that does me <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />Heyo

 

[yurkin]

I don’t know about you but I'm making reservations for a trip to Asia in 24 years.<br />Some place dark.<br />

 

[paulvwwhalen]

I find the chances of one of these hitting us pretty grim...<br />The nuclear fallout would be devastating...<br />We need to colonize alien worlds as fast as can be.

 

[bobvanx]

>>nuclear fallout<br /><br />Umm, unless Mother Nature is throwing bombs at us, these are just very high-energy events. I understand what you mean, but there's got to be a way to differentiate between a nuclear process and an impact process.