Amateur astronomers heeded the call of making observations of the small asteroid 2010 AL30, which whizzed by Earth today. Here are some of the great images and
videos captured by the amateur astronomy community, which will help the professionals
determine the exact orbit, and also perhaps what exactly this unusual asteroid is.
The object, which has been estimated to be between 10-15 meters (30 -50 feet) across,
is likely a natural object, but it hasn't officially been ruled out that it might be man-made,
i.e., a spent rocket booster, from perhaps the Venus Express mission.
The folks who are apt to make the determination are those who work with the 70-meter
radio dish at Goldstone. I corresponded with Lance Benner from the Goldstone facility,
and he said, "We're still working with the data so it's still too early to say."
So what would happen if that asteroid hit our moon? Anything? Or just get absorbed?
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
The moon has been hit thousands of times by all sorts of cosmic debris. The evidence is there. No atmosphere on the moon preserves the craters for us to see. Most of the craters are from long ago when the solar system was forming and there were many more objects in the system. That being said, objects do and will impact both the moon and earth regularly.
If this 10-15m wide asteroid had impacted either one, nothing much would have happened. On earth it probably would have broken apart in the atmosphere. On the Moon, it would have impacted, but probably not that big of a deal.
The bigger you get, the more of a deal it is obviously, but an asteroid of this size is nothing to lose sleep over.
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So we wouldn't have had to send Bruce Willis up to blow it in half?
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
You know, back in April, Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) came to Calgary and gave a lecture at the Science center, and one of his main topics was Hollywood Movies vs Science.
This was what I wrote at the time in this thread:
Quote:
Phil went on to talk at length about the movie Armageddon and how basically this is the worst movie for science ever made. He said the only thing in this movie that is accurate is that Meteors exist. Everything else about the movie is pure garbage.
He did say though that a similar movie released the same year, Deep Impact, was one of the best scientifically done movies. The only real mistake they made was that when they blew up the 5 mile comet, it's pieces wouldn't have disintegrated in the atmosphere, the 5 miles of mass still has the same amount of energy whether it is in one chuck or a million chunks, so everyone would have died still.
The stuff he's written is pretty good, I won't be in town AGAIN (I missed Phil Plait too), someone else might like to go though.
Hmmm, typical intellectual elitist, coming here to tell us that God doesn't exist in our city. If he wants to see somewhere that God clearly does not exist, just keep going north for three hours.
Whatever definition that makes you to want Him to not exist?
Basing a definition on the desired (or not desired) outcome isn't really the right way to approach things. A definition must be proposed and agreed upon before it can be evaluated.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
