3..2...1.....
.....and que the internet nutjobs.... action!
NASA boffins report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid. NASA JPL graphic depicting the 2010 visit of object 2010 KQ. Not actually an asteroid, according to NASA, but artificial. Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky …
Why can't they tell us something artificial is COMING, which would let us all (well most reg readers) have wonderful fun watching the more nutty "end of the world cults", particularly after Xenu & Friends fail to actually do anything observable.
And should it actually (the impact that is, not the nuttiness) prove a little fatal for some, then at least we were warned. One might almost suspect a conspiracy of silence.
I thought you'd fallen for some internet hoax. I think it was "deep space" that did it: somehow in my mind that meant interstellar... I'm half suprised they haven't figured out what its from - there can't be that many artificial objects in Solar orbit can there?You'd think that identification by a process of elimination wouldnt be, well, rock... Oh yes, maybe it is...
"and one would not expect a [naturally occurring] object to remain in this type of orbit for very long,"
What scale of Long is he using here? a few weeks, years, decades, millenia?
Would be interesting to check the spectral characteristics against other launch vehicles or back track past orbits to correlate to a launch... curious now...
Noting I'm no expert or orbital physics, but the stage just to do the thrust from earth orbit to the Moon back when the Russians and Americans were firing rockets at it, would have been going some and perhaps enough to sling into a long orbit. More so with the early probes sent to Venus & Mars. There's a load of stuff obviously sent much further out, but don't know if they used stages like this.
Not that this is outside the gravity of the Earth or Moon as it's clearly orbiting, just on an elliptical path.
It depends how much power they meant - it could have been a stage which continued to burn after seperation, or even gas venting at a later date which would provide thrust. Maybe they are just trying to make you paranoid. The context really isn't very clear, but that is likely the case with any sentence using the term "boffins".
"sadly not an alien visitor"
The remote peoples we Europeans visited over the centuries - the native Americans, the Africans, the Malays, all the aborigines of the world.... not to mention all the other native species on the other four continents... would really have preferred we hadn't bothered.
Be careful what you wish for, dudes.
From the MPML group..
"It was given the asteroid designation 2010
KQ by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge Massachusetts, who identified
its orbit as being very similar to that of the Earth. Orbit refinements
by JPL's Paul Chodas and amateur astronomer Bill Gray have shown that
this object was very close to the Earth in early 1975, but the
trajectory is not known with enough accuracy to associate the object
with any particular launch"
Article from 2002 about Apollo 12 (from 1969) booster in orbit after 30+ years. T
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2790-orbit-shows-second-moon-may-be-apollo-junk.html
Pretty spirograph-esque animation of Apollo 12's orbit:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/j002e3/j002e3.mpg
Apollo Boosters were also sent into orbits that would cause them to hit the moon, a couple of them missed. Any other launch vehicle booster could still be out there from one of the many satellite launches we've had in the last 50 years.
Stop me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Apollo 10 S-IVB (Saturn V third stage) injected into heliocentric orbit after it finished the TLI burn?
I know some of the S-IVBs were targeted for lunar impact after completing TLI -- some, to test out the seismic sensing experiments left on the surface -- but I know a few of them were injected into heliocentric orbit to avoid collisions with the CSM/LM (outbound coast) and CSM (inbound coast).
I'm only wondering because of the reports a few years ago of an approaching NEO that turned out to be the Apollo 12 S-IVB.
Everyone knows a stealth bomber has a radar return about the size of a sparrow, albeit a sparrow cruising at 600mph. So something 10m in size could be, by Zoolander calculation, at least... 3 times as big. And that's using 1980s human-tech. (Stealth is human-tech isnt it?)
This £100 billion or so that has supposedly disappeared must have gone somewhere - my guess is it is the UK contribution to the squadrons of Orion-class Earthforce battleships being constructed on the dark side of the moon. We are providing the wallnut burr dashboards (spaceships are so expensive it is a false economy to leave them looking cheap). Not sure why the Greeks have to contribute so much - guess it has something to do with their gods really being aliens, as is well documented in sci-fi, which proves it.
Strangely, a British amateur astronomer (*) was telling me about this down the pub (it's a Friday - where else?) and he had a few extra details:
- the spectroscopy says the surface is 'titanium oxide paint'
- the object is dense because it's oddly unaffected by solar winds (not blown off course) so likely to be more massive than usual space junk
- believed to be Russian 4th or 5th stage rocket
- 10% chance of earth interface in 2036
* http://www.birtwhistle.org/
Strange how this peice of ancient space junk managed to use power to change its trajectory at an appropriate time. Surely a dormant rocket booster wouldn't have changed its tragectory.
A few metres across would not contain many human sized visitors but it could contain thousands of smaller scale visitors - think HHGTTG and the small dog episode.
...there's a very good reason why ALL aliens speak English.
As we all know English is the most perfect form of communication, with no room for misunderstanding or error and is vastly preferable to any other form of verbal communication yet discovered.
It is inevitable that any sufficiently advanced society will develop it for themselves sooner or later which is why all ETs capable of interstellar travel speak it.
Glad I could help clear that up.
One of the best albums ever made and out of all interpretations of Wells it is the one which is true to the Wells original book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Worlds-30th-Anniversary/dp/B0027CSKQK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1275155861&sr=8-5
Absobloodylutely phenomenal. One of the very few albums I keep listening to after all these years - in the car, while coding or just for the heck of it.
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They are telling us now that they cannot keep track of these things?
And they get out there and become zombies and eat alien brains.
Then they come back just to laugh at us.
OK, I am going in the basement and pulling the old Nuke out.
It is our last best chance and all.
I realize that not keeping up the radioactives and all and no dusting, that the damn thing will hang fire and fizzle.
But surely a fizzle at this point is better than no response at all.
The reptiles are upon us.
We are screwed and these f*cks are two years ahead of time.
Well, get out the lolly and grease the lift shaft, I do hope the blue touch paper lights this time.
(Still trying to learn English.)
Apophis is due to take it's second pass in 2036, the same year as this object.
Obviously, the alien overlords were upset at Apophis being off its orbit to hit Earth in 2029 and sent a probe to take accurate measurements and then guide it to a successful hit on its next orbit.
(There, that oughtta set the tinfoilers panicking!)
The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
One of the Invaders is Steve Jobs!
All the scientists will need new underpants, when it changes course as it passes between the Earth and the moon, and settles into a high Earth orbit.
Its been travelling for years but it will open the portal for the rest of its kind to follow, then the 7 hour war begins. Watch out for the civil protection squads, now where is Freeman?
What kind of science is this? We suppose it could be artificial... And what a Google's Map satellites doing? Can't they point them the other way for a bit, and ask the space debris to say "cheese"? Are DoD's satellites too busy hunting Osama in Afganiraq and they can't spare a few seconds to make a photo of this? Alright, I'll open my trusty Photoshop then...
Beep....beep....beep.....
Hey Tom, you remember the experiment you were doing back in the 70's with nuclear warheads in space, and one of the missiles took off on its own.....?
Beep.....beep.....beep.....
Well it's payback time. Time to drop pants and start smuckering your rear end......