NASA: Near-Miss Asteroids & Other Objects October 29, 2006
Posted by endtimesjournal in Disasters: Asteroids/Comets.trackback
I was recently surprised to learn that we have “near misses” with asteroids and other space objects on a regular basis.
SEE FOR YOURSELF…
NASA tracks possible near-miss objects on their web site. >>Click here to see upcoming, predicted events and the proximity to the earth. **PLEASE NOTE that this page is querying substantial data and it takes a few moments for this page to load.
YIKES! WHEN’S THE NEXT NEAR-MISS EVENT.
Near-miss events happen often. In fact, tomorrow, October 30, 2006, a near-miss is predicted. In this case, the object is estimated to pass 268,800 kilometers from the Earth. To put this in perspective, the distance between the Earth and the Moon is, on average, 384,401 kilometers. Therefore, this object will pass closer than the Moon.
| Object |
Close-Approach Date  (TDB) YYYY-mmm-DD HH:MM ± D_HH:MM |
Miss Distance Nominal (LD/AU) |
Miss Distance Minimum (LD/AU) |
V relative (km/s) |
V infinity (km/s) |
N sigma |
H (mag) |
| (2006 UJ185) | 2006-Oct-30 16:43 ± < 00:01 | 0.7/0.0018 | 0.7/0.0018 | 15.60 | 15.50 | 1.29e+03 | 27.9 |
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers
1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers
HOW OFTEN DO THESE NEAR-MISS EVENTS OCCUR?
The table below shows a typical week’s near-miss activity. As you can see, close fly-bys are fairly common. (See the October 21st entry, in particular).
| Object Name |
Close Approach Date |
Miss Distance (AU) |
Miss Distance (LD) |
Estimated Diameter* |
Relative Velocity (km/s) |
| (2006 TL) | 2006-Oct-20 | 0.0481 | 18.7 | 43 m – 96 m | 13.04 |
| (2006 UE64) | 2006-Oct-21 | 0.0011 | 0.4 | 6.7 m – 15 m | 11.80 |
| (2001 UP) | 2006-Oct-22 | 0.0315 | 12.3 | 20 m – 44 m | 9.14 |
| (2006 UY64) | 2006-Oct-22 | 0.0997 | 38.8 | 330 m – 730 m | 14.38 |
| (2006 UN) | 2006-Oct-22 | 0.0437 | 17.0 | 21 m – 47 m | 3.82 |
| (2006 UC185) | 2006-Oct-23 | 0.0162 | 6.3 | 58 m – 130 m | 9.28 |
| (2002 JV15) | 2006-Oct-25 | 0.0821 | 32.0 | 420 m – 930 m | 13.17 |
| (2006 UE185) | 2006-Oct-25 | 0.1761 | 68.5 | 35 m – 78 m | 3.71 |
| (2000 UR16) | 2006-Oct-25 | 0.0639 | 24.9 | 56 m – 130 m | 16.26 |
| (2004 TD10) | 2006-Oct-26 | 0.2000 | 77.8 | 100 m – 230 m | 16.61 |
* Diameter estimates based on the object’s absolute magnitude.
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