An asteroid will skim the Earth on Halloween
the orbit of the Moon around the Earth. At 480,000 kilometers, the asteroid 2015 TB145 will be close enough to be photographed. Nasa does not miss an opportunity to remind everyone that the observation of NEOs is an important activity that deserves credit.
October 31, 18 h 05 hours in metropolitan France, 2015 TB145 increase to about 480,000 kilometers from Earth, only 1.25 times the Earth-Moon distance since that day, our satellite will be 383,218 km. Such reconciliation is exceptional, explains NASA. According to the Minor Planet Center, it is to rank number two behind the 1999 AN10 which occur in August 2027 for an object of that size. This body will then pass 800 m to 380 thousand kilometers, the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
This however is not the known approximation of record, currently held by Apophis. In April 2029, it should be close to 30,000 km only, without collision. But it only measures 300 m. And everyone remembers the 15 February 2014 when NASA watched 2014 DA14 that bordered the Earth at 28,000 km whereas without the two events have a report, an object much smaller fortunately clashed in the Earth's atmosphere -Dessus Urals, igniting the sky of Chelyabinsk.
What do we risk this October 31?
Absolutely nothing, of course, and the event only of interest to astronomers. 2015 TB145 will be close enough to be imaged by a radar flash emitted from the DSS-13 radio antenna installed at 34 m Goldstone, California. The expected resolution of two meters per pixel. So far, the best image of the kind obtained is that of 2014 hq124 while asteroid was 1.25 million kilometers. Professionals do not perhaps be the only ones to see TB145 2015. Magnitude 10, it will also visible effect in the seasoned amateur astronomers instruments.
Furthermore, the object is unique, with a very elliptical orbit and highly inclined to the ecliptic and a speed of 35 km / s with respect to Earth, suggesting that this may d a piece of comet. After passing close to Earth, 2015 TB145 will approach the Sun to be closer than Mercury and then return later in the solar system. No doubt he will return in 30 years, as he must have done about 1985, discreetly.
As this passage will occur on Halloween, NASA does not hesitate to publicize the event by talking pumpkin, with obvious success. In addition, the Pan-STARRS program, which should eventually comprise four telescopes, is still in progress and such announcement is probably not bad for the issue of funding requests. NASA, meanwhile, is preparing a project to send astronauts beyond Earth orbit, precisely to an asteroid.
The phenomenon also reminds us that the monitoring of near space is not simple. If the asteroid more than a kilometer are relatively well marked, the smaller ones are more discreet. The latter, whose passage occurs twenty days after its detection, attests. Yet a body of this size hitting Earth would be devastating.
But still, our ancestors mammals have withstood the impact of a body of about 10 km, which dug a huge crater 150 km in diameter Chicxulub there are nearly 66 million years, causing (apparently) a mass extinction and disappearance of dinosaurs and ammonites ...
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