Comments on: Pictures of 2007 TU24

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:05:52 +0000

Are there enough images to calculate a light curve and determine TU24′s period of rotation?

By: Rocket

Rocket — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:44:54 +0000

Here is a series taken last night (when the weather finally cleared here) of TU24. This gif is comprised of 10 images taken by Dr. Mike Hicks and Mr. Jim Young at the Table Mountain Observatory (JPL) on 29 Jan 08. The camera is a 1K CCD mounted on a 24” telescope. These are two second exposures roughly 35 or so seconds apart and tracking on the object.

http://tmoa.jpl.nasa.gov/Gallery%20Images/gifs/TU24.gif

By: Lugosi

Lugosi — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:15:42 +0000

I imagine capturing an asteroid would also require a really big tranquilizer gun.

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:10:43 +0000

Mars is closer to the asteroid belt, too, so the flux of small passing asteroids might be higher in its vicinity. Does anyone know the density/semimajor axis function for the asteroids?

By: Rosa W.

Rosa W. — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:07:11 +0000

“Gary Ansorgeon 30 Jan 2008 at 9:29 am

I wonder why we seem to have no captured asteroids in earth orbit???”

Well, d’you count the results of an asteroid smacking into proto-Earth? Our Moon may not be a captured asteroid per se, but an asteroid was involved… (Though judging from the size estimates of the impacting body, it may have qualified for planetary status.)

That aside, it’s not easy to catch an asteroid unless you have a really really big catcher’s mitt. That is, in the normal course of events, an asteroid passing near a planet will just pass on by, a la TU 24. Most of ‘em are traveling a lot faster than Earth’s paltry escape velocity at that distance.

As I understand it, what you really need is to slow the traveling asteroid down a bit, and the best way to do that is if it interacts with the outer atmosphere of your planet. For Jupiter and the other monster planets, with their whopping big atmospheres, this may be easier, which would explain why they have so much orbital clutter.

It’s harder to account for why midget Mars managed to pull off the trick twice. Even if you allow that in the past, when it was a warmer place, it might have had more atmosphere, it still leaves the question of how that wimp snared a pair of asteroids while buff Venus and Earth missed out. Luck of the draw, perhaps… Mars just had closer encounters?

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:47:31 +0000

Oh, Poo! So, I guess we’re stuck with Lunar resources for construction material? Well, it requires a more powerful mass driver to launch the material to L5 for conversion into power sats, etc. but WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY,,,

,,,now all we need is the will,,,

GAry 7
PS> How about moving a SMALL asteroid into earth orbit, say, about 50 meters in diameter,,,that shouldn’t be TOO big a risk for earther governments to get behind,,,

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:03:33 +0000

Gary Ansorge writes:

[[I wonder why we seem to have no captured asteroids in earth orbit???
What a wonderful resource for space manufacturing THAT would be,,,]]

The same technology needed to divert an asteroid into Earth orbit (mass drivers on the surface?) could also be used to divert it directly into the path of Earth. Thus, I can’t see any Earth government allowing another to try such a thing.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:29:15 +0000

I wonder why we seem to have no captured asteroids in earth orbit???
What a wonderful resource for space manufacturing THAT would be,,,

On the other hand, if there were earth orbiting asteroids, some nut case would be claiming “We’re all doomed! The earth orbiting asteroids are falling,,,”

Gary 7

By: C. Taylor

C. Taylor — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:07:06 +0000

First, Jarrod, I’m in Rutherford as well…small world.

Secondly, when _exactly_ did the asteroid enter the earth’s magnetosphere? I’m just curious since TU24.ORG keeps talking about the effects on the magnetosphere:

“…since TU24′s entry into the magnetosphere.”

The magnetosphere/solar wind simulator was definitely very active during the 28th and 29th, but was it really due to the asteroid? I’m curious about the science behind this.

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:01:50 +0000

NASA… Phil… both four letters. Does anyone see a sinister pattern here?

By: Lugosi

Lugosi — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:16:01 +0000

There are no lightning bolts. Shouldn't there by lightning bolts? Where are the lightning bolts? The photos are obviously a hoax perpetrated upon the people of Earth by the vast NASA-Phil conspiracy. By the way, there's a cool video of Earthrise and Earthset taken from the fake Japanese satellite orbiting our fake moon.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:59:49 +0000

You’re right, there’s science to talk about on this asteroid. This TU24dotORG nutcase wrecked something that should’ve been a pretty darn cool topic of discussion.

She just spewed her excuses on the website. OMG! WEATHER IS ALL WEIRD! I hope she mentions that the whole winter has been strange thus far, AND THE ASTEROID WAS PRETTY FAR AWAY at the start.

By: Willo the Wisp

Willo the Wisp — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:15:51 +0000

Thanks for the analogy Jarrod. I can appreciate that calling it a ‘pretty close shave’ in front of the doomsayers might be too much fuel for their fire! All I mean is that astronomically speaking, it’s incredibly close, and that’s why astronomers have been so excited about it. It would have attracted little attention had it not come so close, after all.

Again, I’m not trying to lend credence to the asteroid nutjobs. The scales and distances involved in astronomy blow my mind a little bit, that’s all, but I do have some idea of how breathtakingly far apart everything is. So when I hear of things passing within ‘hundreds of thousands of miles’ of us, like 2007 TU24, it thrills me a bit to think that *something from out there* came so close!

By: Lars Bruchmann

Lars Bruchmann — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:06:50 +0000

I felt things shake and stuff fell over, then there was smoke and a burning smell, then more weird smells… oh, wait- it was my cats knocking things over, me being so distracted by the thoughts of impending doom that i burned my dinner, then i realised i had forgotten to clean the litterbox. i thought the end of the world would be more dramatic.
Phil!! Loved both your videos, the real one and the edited one!

By: marlon

marlon — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:35:10 +0000

just pay a visit to apod today and you will see the most detailed picture of tu24. ha ha ha!nasa people may not even know what it is!

By: Astronomy Pictures - Images of moon

Astronomy Pictures - Images of moon — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:55:02 +0000

[...] Pictures of 2007 TU24 By The Bad Astronomer Several astrophotographers on BAUT have posted their pictures of 2007 TU24 as it tumbled past Earth last night. The pix are very cool. There are two ways in general to take them: let the ’scope track the stars, and the asteroid will … Bad Astronomy Blog – http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog [...]

By: Ed Minchau

Ed Minchau — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:41:52 +0000

Phil, your video on 2007TU24 is the Space Video of the Day.

By: Jarrod Henry

Jarrod Henry — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:40:28 +0000

Bill, no kidding about that wind. Holy cow, that was incredible. I walked out to get the mail and I was just about blown out of Rutherford County. Freaking amazing wind that squall produced.

By: Bill Nettles

Bill Nettles — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:48:37 +0000

We’ve had 20-40 mpg straight-line westerlies for the past 2 hours here in TN. It’s like we’re living on the coast of California. I supposed you’re going to say TU24 had nothing to do with that. Prove it!

By: Jarrod Henry

Jarrod Henry — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:54:21 +0000

Willo, let me put it in perspective.

Imagine you are holding in your hand, a small rock, that’s about an inch in diameter… okay?

That is TU24. Now..it’s to scale.. and it’s moving along a line, that will pull it away from earth. This is as close as that little one inch rock is going to get.

Now.. to put the earth into perspective.. the earth is a 2/3rd mile diameter sphere.

So.. a 2/3rd mile diameter sphere represents Earth. A one inch rock represents TU24.

To give you a picture of how close this “VERY CLOSE” approach to us is… you have to understand that the 1 inch rock was 42 miles from the 2/3rd mile sphere.

SO, yes.. it was close compared to the others we’ve seen… but “a pretty close shave” might be too much needless metaphor for our own good.

By: Daniel Fischer

Daniel Fischer — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:49:23 +0000

German amateurs managed to capture 2007 TU24 passing close to the galaxy M 33 one night ago and close to the galaxy pair M 81/82 tonight - and there is also a new radar image! Daniel Fischer

By: Willo the Wisp

Willo the Wisp — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:12:04 +0000

Hey Phil: you say that the ‘roid will miss us by hundreds of thousands of miles. Now I’d like to make it clear that I understand and agree with everything you say about this rock, and I get angry about those who perpeutate idiocy about things like this, but am I right in thinking that “hundreds of thousands of miles” is a pretty close shave, all things considered?

By: Oliver C

Oliver C — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:55:36 +0000

hey want a nice photo? heres from tu24org

http://www.tu24.org/forums/uploads/2768sheepcircle.jpg

By: Davidlpf

Davidlpf — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:19:57 +0000

@Yoshi, before any pictures are posted to the internet they are edited to look like what NASA and the great science conspiracy wants everybody to see. Unless you look at websites like tu24orgs website and the other truthsayers.

By: Paracropolis

Paracropolis — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:55:25 +0000

Cool picture!

Though, I am disappointed. It was nowhere near as spectacular as I was expecting it to be. Where are all the earthquakes, firestorms and unknown effects. Oh wait…