Everyone, who is interested in the passing asteroid 2012 DA14, there is some information on this website
http://remanzacco.blogspot.cz/2013/02/close-approach-of-asteroid-2012-da14.html

Hope it doesn't end like the one that has fallen in Siberia...
The 2012 DA14 will get very, very close to us. Too much in my opinion.

Isn't it space big enough?
No, that asteroid has to come this close to make idiots believe this is the end of the world as the mayas supposedly said a time ago (though I suspect they simply run out of stone when carving their calendars). I can remember last year when some people went to a small French town saying that the mountain in it would be the only place on Earth to ba save... it seems that for many people science is still something that happens to the rest of the World, not them. Annoying

Someone should kick those asteorids out of the Solar System... they should come close true, so we can study them, but not that close...

We talked about this a year ago in the project Orbit@Home http://orbit.psi.edu/oah/forum_thread.php?id=516
Unfortunately, interest in asteroid 2012DA14 (and his accompany, small fragments) and precautions no one took. Subsequently, - all very concerned and amazed!

Unfortunately, interest in asteroid 2012DA14 (and his accompany, small fragments) and precautions no one took. Subsequently, - all very concerned and amazed!

Why should anyone take precautions when it is known the object will not hit Earth? When we find one that we know will hit Earth or one that might hit Earth then we need to take action but when we know it will miss why waste the money? Besides we have no viable precautions in place at this time anyway.

no need to do + nothing we can do = nothing done

Some look upon these close approaching rocks as a danger. Others look upon them as a potential gift from the gods worth many millions or billions of dollars.

Who wants to watch online the asteroid see http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

Why should anyone take precautions when it is known the object will not hit Earth? When we find one that we know will hit Earth or one that might hit Earth then we need to take action but when we know it will miss why waste the money? Besides we have no viable precautions in place at this time anyway.

no need to do + nothing we can do = nothing done

Some look upon these close approaching rocks as a danger. Others look upon them as a potential gift from the gods worth many millions or billions of dollars.

No, I was referring to the next... You saw a large whale in the ocean and around the small fish that swim with it? And around the asteroid 2012 DA14 - also, there is small fragments! Date of flight was known (February 15, 2013). The presence of the small fragments of this asteroid - not difficult to guess! Elementary warnings about the dangers for people on this day - did not happen. Therefore, more than 1,000 wounded people: cuts from glass, broken bones, bruises, etc. It would be a warning - people could go into hiding for a few hours... at the distance from windows and glass!
Look at this picture http://zyalt.livejournal.com/722930.html

I'm a noob at this, but i wonder, Alex, whether it is or not possible to calculate the impact zone of the small fragments... It's obvious that astronomers can calculate zone of impact of big meteorites as they have done.

In resume, was it possible to know that those fragments would destroy Cheliabinsk's windows?

I'm a noob at this, but i wonder, Alex, whether it is or not possible to calculate the impact zone of the small fragments... It's obvious that astronomers can calculate zone of impact of big meteorites as they have done.

In resume, was it possible to know that those fragments would destroy Cheliabinsk's windows?

Enric, I accept... This could happen in any city in any country. But... we know date (February 15), where - we do not know... Perform preventive measures... For example, in this day, in school and kindergarten children - do not go, no damage to the country. In the same situation (all were in one classroom, near windows), pupils - in the hospitals now! Various other precautions too!

OK, now I understand. It's the small fragments you are concerned about. I think it is impossible to predict where those fragments will hit or even if they will hit at all. If you do not know the composition or size of the fragments you cannot say whether they will burn up quickly and explode high in the atmosphere or whether they will penetrate deeper. If you don't know the mass and angle of entry you cannot predict the trajectory with any measure of certainty. The only thing that is certain is that if a rock does get through the atmosphere and get close to the ground it likely won't hurt anybody because so much of the Earth is unpopulated. Therefore they could issue warnings but it's very unlikely any damage/injury will occur and then people will be angry with the scientists who make the predictions and then next time when the danger is greater they will ignore the warnings.

Also, people don't listen anyway. They are told using a cell phone while driving is dangerous but they still do it. They are told smoking causes lung disease and heart attack but they still smoke. They are told too much UV light causes skin cancer but they don't wear sunscreen and they still go to tanning salons.

It's a shame the little children suffer. I feel very sorry for them but I don't see what can be done other than to educate people and let them decide for themselves what to do.

What is this? This is true or fake? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaQIPBqoQ-Q
The text for the video: "Look just below the tail and see the UFO that catches up and runs into a meteor, breaks it and goes away".

It is not fake and I know it because I was onboard that ship visiting with my alien friends, enjoying tea and cake and having a good laugh over BilBg's belief that they must believe as we do about hydrogen absorption-emission and radio and all that. Their thoughts on SETI... "If they are stupid enough to believe that about us then they will never find us, lucky for us."

It is not fake and I know it because I was onboard that ship visiting with my alien friends, enjoying tea and cake... "

Good joke to this topic ... :))

No, I was referring to the next... You saw a large whale in the ocean and around the small fish that swim with it? And around the asteroid 2012 DA14 - also, there is small fragments! Date of flight was known (February 15, 2013). The presence of the small fragments of this asteroid - not difficult to guess! Elementary warnings about the dangers for people on this day - did not happen. Therefore, more than 1,000 wounded people: cuts from glass, broken bones, bruises, etc. It would be a warning - people could go into hiding for a few hours... at the distance from windows and glass!
Look at this picture http://zyalt.livejournal.com/722930.html

Sorry Bro, but it was a different asteroid.
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/Watch%20the%20Skies/posts/post_1361037562855.html

There are estimately several hundredthousands objects on an orbit around the sun, which cross our orbit sometimes.
The reason why there was no warning ist simple - the russian meteor wasn't noticed by anyone. It was relativ small, damn fast, reflects nearly no light.. and there is no one on earth who is interested in funding a proactive observation system.
In fact, there are only three telescopes on the whole planet which job is finding such objects.

Call me cynic but i guess, someone has calculated that the random damage of such impacts is overall cheaper than a solid funding of a warning system.

You're right cykodennis.
How many meteorites have fallen in the last 30 years with damages afterwards?
IIRC, one of the last meteorites provoking a death felt in Arabia Saudi killing a dog.

A global tracking system may be worth hundreds or thousands of milions each decade. Compared to this, what are a few broken windows in the middle of Siberia?.

fortunately that meteorite was small; if it had had the size of the 2012DA14... there'd be some more than a few broken windows for sure...

The problem with that is, tha you also can not predict the impact of a real heavyweight champion.
I guess, people don't take this danger for serious (incl. ESA, NASA, etc.) because of the way how popular science or infotainement broadcasts report about it.

I dunno what to think. Some experts are saying just the few 'scopes in use have already found all the rocks big enough to cause serious damage like the one that supposedly led to the extinction of the dinosaurs and none of those pose an immediate threat. So it becomes a matter of ROI (return on investment). Some people think we can save more lives by using the money to clean up the environment and reduce the pollution that seems to be causing cancer. Or perhaps use the money to cure/prevent malaria which kills thousands every year. A dog here and there? Some broken windows once in a while? Some kids in the clinic with cuts from glass? That's not as bad as thousands of kids suffering for months then dying from starvation every year. Or the thousands who get killed and crippled by drunk drivers every year.

Hmmmm, what to do, what to do... hey I've got it! Wars make everybody rich again! Every time a bomb explodes it creates a money tree and eventually you just pick the money off the tree... free money!!! Let's start another war and use the extra money it creates to build more telescopes!! Or... or... or even better... let's spend more money on a braindead alien hunt! Yeah!!!! That'll help the starving kids and build more telescopes for sure! See how easy it all is when you just turn your brain off and do whatever ya feel like?

Would it not be a good idea, after we have identified most or all asteroids (within 25 years, probably), to figure out a way to flat-out destroy them? Mining them would be great, but after stripping them of value, send 'em toward the sun by rocket or whatever, and let them vaporize. We don't need boulders in space threatening us...

---

The babydoll in my avatar is Hayley Westenra, the finest soprano on the face of this planet or any other...

I guess you reach the same goal by correcting the orbits of all threating asteroids.
In most cases, you won't even need explosives. Throw white paint on em and the sun will alter their orbits.

Don't forget that space is huge. I mean..damn, huge! We don't need to destroy them, we just need to know them.

We don't need boulders in space threatening us...

99.9% of them will never be a threat or at least not within the next thousand or so years, maybe more. And I'm talking 99.9% of those that cross Earth's orbit, not the ones in the belt. As cykodennis says, we only have to know them which means know their current trajectories so we can get a handle on how their orbit will evolve, due to interaction with other gravitating bodies, over time. Most rocks are in a very stable orbit that might bring them very close to us but they're not like drunken sailors, they don't suddenly pitch off in a new direction unpredictably. The heavens are a clockwork, precise and predictable to very small distances once we have enough data on the body.

The scary ones are the ones we don't see until the last minute, the ones for which we don't have enough observations to calculate their orbit accurately.

Thousands and millions of potential threats! Plus to them, asteroids - outside Solar system.
Only - early detection systems and precautions on the Earth ... - is our salvation !



The inner Solar System, from the Sun to Jupiter. Also includes the Main Asteroid Belt (the white donut-shaped cloud), the Hildas (the orange "triangle" just inside the orbit of Jupiter) and the Jovian Trojan's (green). The group that leads Jupiter are called the "Greeks" and the trailing group are called the "Trojans" (Murray and Dermott, Solar System Dynamics, pg. 107). This image is based on data found in the en:JPL DE-405 ephemeris, and the en:Minor Planet Center database of asteroids (etc) published 2006 Jul 6... http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:InnerSolarSystem-en.png?uselang=ru