NASA discovers new potentially hazardous asteroid

[Judi Lynn]

NASA discovers new potentially hazardous asteroid

PTI | Washington | Updated: Jan 08 2014, 15:44 IST

Asteroid is Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer's first such discovery since coming out of hibernation last year.


NASA's latest sky-mapping spacecraft has discovered a new potentially hazardous asteroid, 43 million kilometres from Earth.

It is the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE)'s first such discovery since coming out of hibernation last year.

The spacecraft discovered a near-Earth asteroid designated 2013 YP139 on December 29. The mission's sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars.

As NEOWISE circled Earth scanning the sky, it observed the asteroid several times over half a day before the object moved beyond its view.

More:
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/nasa-discovers-new-potentially-hazardous-asteroid/1216854

[Fearless]

1. It's good to see NASA back working again

But, the asteroid in question is only 650 meters in diameter. What wouldn't burn up in the atmosphere would leave a small crater. More likely though it would do nothing and land in the water.

[Locut0s]

4. I agree the media loves to overhype these stories for fear and clicks...

However 650 meters is no joke, that's 3/5 of a kilometre. The meteor that caused the Chelyabinsk explosion that injured quite a few was only 17 to 20 meters in size.

Certainly this is not some extinction level event meteor. But at 650 meters I bet a fair amount would survive entry and that small crater would be large enough to likely wipe out any major city. Of course the chances that it would fall on a heavily populated area is small. But even an ocean landing could trigger some pretty large tsunamis.

[7962]

7. "Only" 650 meters? That aint small!

[Fearless]

8. Geologically it is.

For instance, the meteor that we assume killed off the dinosaurs was approximately 6 MILES in diameter.

[DRoseDARs]

2. And this headline is what happens when someone who flunked science writes.

"It is possible for its orbit to bring it as close as 482803 km from Earth, a little more than the distance to the Moon. However, it will not come that close within the next century."

^That is all the needs to be said. It is not a remote danger to us.

[Notafraidtoo]

3. Almost no media write things for truth anymore.

This is how they make money, something out of nothing, these stories are designed to prime you so you click or look, that = dollars for them.

Until we as media consumers demand no more bullshit this is what we are stuck with similar to until we demand better wages we will be continuously denied them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. They used what NASA said - "potentially hazardous asteroid" is the classification

While asteroid 2013 YP139 orbits the sun in an elliptical orbit nearly in the plane of our solar system and is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, it is not likely to approach within Earth's vicinity anytime over the next 100 years. However, the asteroid’s future motion can bring it within about 300,000 miles (490,000 kilometers) of Earth’s orbit, so its long-term motion will be closely monitored.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/neowise/asteroid-pia17829/#.Us6q922UYfw

This isn't about 'flunking science'; it's about pulling the most interesting part of the press release out, and using it as the headline. They wouldn't have run the story without it, let's face it - many more new bodies were discovered last year without making headlines.

[Ptah]

5. It's always nice to see Kitt Peak's role in astronomy in the news.

Researchers at the University of Arizona used the Spacewatch telescope at the
Kitt Peak National Observatory southwest of Tucson to confirm the discovery.