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Huge asteroid 2005 YU55 to pass near Earth in November

huge-asteroid-2005-yu55-to-pass-near-earth-in-november

Mark your calendars for an impressive and upcoming flyby of an asteroid (2005 YU55) that’s one of the larger potentially perilous space rocks in the heavens – in terms of smacking the Earth in the future.

It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 400 meters (1,300 feet) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances.

Due the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered by Spacewatch at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Dec. 28, 2005. En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet.

The close Earth approach of 2005 YU55 on Nov. 8, is unusual since it is close and big. On average, one wouldn’t expect an object this big to pass this close but every 30 years,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Yeomans said that with new radar capabilities at Goldstone in California — part of NASA’s Deep Space Network — there is a good chance of obtaining radar imaging of 2005 YU55 down to the 5-meter resolution level. Doing so, he said, would mean obtaining higher spatial resolution of the object than that attained by recent spacecraft flyby missions.

“So we like to think of this opportunity as a close flyby mission with Earth as the spacecraft. When combined with ground-based optical and near-infrared observations, the radar data should provide a fairly complete picture of one of the larger potentially hazardous asteroids.”

Asteroid 2005 YU55 is a slow rotator. Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., has designated the space rock as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”

We’re already preparing for the 2005 YU55 flyby,” said Lance Benner, a research scientist at JPL and a specialist on radar imaging of near-Earth objects. He said part of the plan is to observe the asteroid with radar using both the huge Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico and equipment at Goldstone.

To help coordinate the observing campaigns, “Radar Observations Planning” websites have been set up for this unusual occasion.

This flyby will be the closest by any near-Earth asteroid with an absolute magnitude this bright since 1976 and until 2028,” Benner added. “Having said that, nobody saw 2010 XC15 during its close flyby within 0.5 lunar distance in 1976,” he said, noting that this asteroid wasn’t discovered until late in 2010.

Benner said that because the asteroid is zooming by Earth so very close, radar echoes will be extremely strong. One facility at Goldstone will be used to transmit and “radar paint” the object…another Goldstone dish is on tap to snag the reflected echo of radar data.

What can radar do?

Information collected by this technique, for example, can be transformed into 3-D shapes, with surface features and spin rates identified. The asteroid’s roughness and density can also be assessed. Furthermore, radar can improve the whereabouts of the object. By greatly shrinking uncertainties for newly discovered meandering NEOs, that in turn enables motion prediction for decades to centuries.

As for seeing the asteroid with small telescopes, start getting your gear ready. Initially, the object will be too close to the sun and too faint for optical observers.

But late in the day (Universal Time) on Nov. 8, the solar elongation will grow sufficiently to see it. Early on Nov. 9, the asteroid could reach about 11th magnitude for several hours before it fades as its distance rapidly increases, Benner explained. (Space.com)

 

NeoDys Information On 2005 YU55

2005 YU55 Orbit Diagram

2005 YU55 on the impact risk table

Asteroid Impact Calculator

 

 

 

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One Comment

  1. The time will come soon when all on Earth will look to the Heavens above.

    IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL THAT LIVE BY THE SEA OR OCEAN SHORE AT 1 FOOT TO 50 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL. Or with in ten miles of the coast. World Wide.

    This will be a very close call i pray it is only that. Discovered on December 28, 2005 by Robert McMillan of the Spacewatch Program A potentially hazardous Asteroid known as 2005 YU55.

    This Asteroid some what Large 400 meter-sized type – C, will pass by the Earth right between our moon and Earth. On November 8, 2011.

    The people on Earth have not seen a Asteroid of this size in advance. One this big Has not impacted Earth in over at least 4 thousand years.

    Most Objects that have a diameters over 45 meters or 147.637 ft strike the Earth approximately once every thousand years or so. Lying flat everything for hundreds of miles.

    Like the TUNGUSKA 1908 SIBERIA, RUSSIA CRASH OR Tunguska Explosion. This one did not even hit the Earth with its full Impact, it burst high in the air above the ground plowing it apart into many smaller parts. Making thousands of very deep holes in the Russian forests. Many of them in dense forest far from any roads or towns.

    One 400 Meters 1,312.3 ft in diameter like this one YU55 weighing millions of tons would if impacted Earth on land would darken all of the Earth not for just days but much longer.

    It would change the weather not seen on Earth in over thousands of years a massive climate change to say the least.

    Asteroids in our Asteroid Belt that is between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars do have collisions and some do turn into meteoroids many in the past thousands of years have come into the Earth’s Atmosphere. Many of thousands of them make it into Meteorites the signs are all over the Earth, craters of all sizes.

    Now Earth going through a Debris Field or Tail of a Comet or large Asteroid at almost the same time as Asteroid YU55 near Earth Miss? Debris fields some times are very Large to say the least.

    The World and NASA will watch Outer Space very closely the next 30 days.
    Most likely more Earthquakes and the Oceans Tide will be strongly affected just from a near miss. The Gravitational Effects from outer space will most likely effect Earth for days.

    Let us all pray
    this is just a near Earth miss or NEO (Near Earth Object) or Near Earth Orbit.

    READ THE BIBLE
    Judgment Day will come soon enough.

    Please Look at this site it is NASA’s Near Earth Object Program.

    neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

    UP COMING CLOSE APPROACHES TO EARTH

    Then go to

    (2005 YU55) NOV 8, 2011
    (2005 XB1) NOV 8, 2011
    (2011 TP6) NOV 2011
    (2000 YA) DEC 26, 2011

    Add a asteroid about a mile wide into this Equation and ???
    Object ( 20011LC19 ) it to will be going by Earth around Oct 28, 2011 tru
    Nov 4, 2011. It is 1.2km or 3,937Ft wide.

    May The Lord GOD our Father in Heaven Watch over and Guide you.
    GOD Bless
    Read the Bible
    John 8:12-31

    The Lord’s Little Helper
    Paul Felix Schott

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