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Monday, January 25, 2010

Science Another Near-Earth Asteroid Spotted

Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 7:58 AM

Which one has our number on it?

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth asteroid, the first of hundreds it is expected to find during its mission to map the whole sky in infrared light.

The near-Earth object, designated 2010 AB78, was discovered by WISE Jan. 12. After the mission's sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars, researchers followed up and confirmed the discovery with the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) visible-light telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea.

The asteroid is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) from Earth. It is estimated to be roughly 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter and circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system. The object comes as close to the sun as Earth, but because of its tilted orbit, it is not thought to pass near our planet. This asteroid does not pose any foreseeable impact threat to Earth, but scientists will continue to monitor it.

As much as we fear them, without them we would not be here to fear them. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."

The image is by Squinza.

Comments (4) RSS

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An "Apollo class" asteroid was discovered two weeks ago (2010 AL30), that near-missed us two days later. On January 13th, it passed by us at about a third the distance to the Moon, 80,000 miles away: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=20…

Pretty amazing that these types of needles in haystacks can even be spotted.

On a related note, a meteorite wrecked a doctor's office in Virginia last week: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

Posted by Peter F on January 25, 2010 at 8:38 AM

@1, I always chuckle at the term "near miss." It seems better described as a "near hit." An actual impact would be a "near miss."

Not being critical, just observing a quirky idiom.

Posted by rob!

on January 25, 2010 at 9:53 AM

@2, I've never really thought about the wording, but you have a point, I guess. It seems to be standard descriptive terminology for asteroids that pass by us disturbingly close (in cosmic terms, at least).

Posted by Peter F on January 25, 2010 at 10:12 AM

Fear? What's the use?

Posted by thatsnotright on January 25, 2010 at 11:41 AM