2012 KT42 is an asteroid discovered by Alex R. Gibbs of the Mt. Lemmon Survey (part of the Catalina Sky Survey) with a 1.5-m reflector + CCD on May 28, 2012. The asteroid had a close approach to the Earth on May 29, 2012, approaching to only Distance: ~8950 miles / ~14,440 km above the planet's surface. This means 2012 KT42 came inside the Clarke Belt of geosynchronous satellites. As of May 28, 2012, the estimated 5 to 10 meter wide asteroid ranked #6 on the top 20 list of closest-approaches to Earth. There was no danger of a collision during the close approach. 2012 KT42 will pass roughly 0.01 AU (1,500,000 km; 930,000 mi) from Venus on 2012 July 8.[3]

It is estimated that an impact would produce an upper atmosphere air burst equivalent to 11 kt TNT,[4] roughly equal to Hiroshima's Little Boy. The asteroid would be vaporized as these small impacts occur approximately once per year. A comparable-sized object caused the Sutter's Mill meteorite in California on 2012 April 22. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 2012 May 30.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_KT42

Just a few decades ago, most scientists thought the idea of asteroids crashing to Earth to be ludicrous. Today, this same idea isan accepted fact. Not only do asteroids fall to Earth, but more are being discovered every day. Yesterday, one of these newly-discovered asteroids just buzzed Earth. Coincidentally, this comes just days after NASA said that thenear-Earth asteroid population was larger than previously thought.

Monday, asteroid 2012KP24, which is about 69 feet across, came within about 32,000 miles ofEarth, well within the Moon’s orbit. Yesterday, asteroid 2012KT42 came within a mere 9,000 miles of Earth. In a fact thatmay be especially disconcerting tosome, the time span between discovery and close approach for the second asteroid was only a day! Talk about next to no warning.

Now for the good news: the asteroids were small and even if either were to collide with the Earth, they may not even have been large enough to survive the descent through the atmosphere,burning up in a spectacular fireball instead. Still, though, the fact that an asteroid can sneak up on us out of space with only afew days notice is the troubling part of this whole situation.

It is a perfectly logical idea that an asteroid could, one day, destroy life as we know it on Earth. The good news is that scientists are busy developing plans to avert doomsday. The problem is this: in these doomsday prevention plans, the time frame for a response is typically, at the least, months, notdays. With only a couple of days notice and with current technology, it would probably be impossible to do anything to save the planet and our civilization.

Read more: http://scienceray.com/astronomy/pair-of-asteroids-justbuzzed-earth/#ixzz1yT02pGAK (watch for pop-up ads)

I hear what you are saying. (but)
I'm not judging the event. This sounds fraking cool, and I'm sure it's a scientific wonder that we can now detect, analyze and examine events such as these. The science isn't lost on me or the work, study and teams that go into this sort of thing.

What I don't see is great video. I'm not asking for a cheesy edited version dumbed down for the 6-9 p.m. TV viewing public. I am expecting some explanation (as part of the footage), some commentary from the people working on the project, or some graphics explaining the likelihood, descriptions of projections, something.

If there was no description next to this, non of us would even know what we were looking at. Sort of misses the mark from the medium we are here to judge. I'm basing my vote on the video in front of me, not the event that's trying to be presented.


>> ^deathcow:

> that's a white dot on a black surface.
I missed that! I saw an asteroid, maybe 30 ft wide, perhaps showing tumbling motion, being tracked at a ridiculous custom rate of azimuth and altitude change, by a team from MIT working for NASA. Watch the stars fly by in the background.
This near earth object at just thousands of miles away from missing the Earth, is probably like missing a home run in baseball because your bat was 1/50th of a millimeter too low and 0.05 mph too slow.

> that's a white dot on a black surface.

I missed that! I saw an asteroid, maybe 30 ft wide, perhaps showing tumbling motion, being tracked at a ridiculous custom rate of azimuth and altitude change, by a team from MIT working for NASA. Watch the stars fly by in the background.

This near earth object at just thousands of miles away from missing the Earth, is probably like missing a home run in baseball because your bat was 1/50th of a millimeter too low and 0.05 mph too slow.

I can't vote on what I don't know.
I don't believe in a God Theory, and basic evolution, from single cell to humans as we know them, can sometimes seem quite a jump.

The idea that earth was somehow seeded is interesting, whether from asteroid or from terrestrial colonization, this concept has too many variables to predict.

I believe we may never know and I'm okay with that. I'm going to have to be since they'll never figure it out in my lifetime.

If I "have to" choose, I'd say we are a colony. I'm not going into a 12-page write-up here but this concept seems to make the most sense to me. Of course I have no proof so, I'm not going to strap on a sandwich board and stand on the street corners any time soon

At some point, back at the beginning of time, the term evolution is the only term that can describe origin but I'm sure it looks completely different that what we can picture. What ancient man refers to as gods, could have held it's origins in transplanting, colonization, teraforming and so on, but where did "they" come from? They evolved from something else.

So the term, "Evolution," still stands for me - it just might look different in reality.

The Government is building underground bunkers for the upcoming apocalypse or collision with an asteroid.It's so obvious!

I missed it on the first viewing, but they have themselves some neptunium! Neptunium 237 is essential in the productions of plutonium 238. Unlike its brother plutonium 239 used in nuclear weapons, plutonium 238 is used for deep space exploration in RTG units. RTGs are the reason we can go beyond the asteroid belt! The curiosity rover will also be using an RTG as they are much more reliable than solar cells, especially on a notoriously dusty planet like mars.

I truly don't care about man's NEED to label and categorize everything.

What I do care about is giving us the whole picture, like the size differences, the distances, how many planetoids are in this Kuiper Belt and so on. Give us the diagrams so we can see what is there. I've never heard of this belt (perhaps my focuses were elsewhere).

Why is this never mentioned in Elementry school is any realistic way. I bought my son a stack of books (set) from Schoolastic. One book for every planet. I'd hoped he would get a better idea of the things around him. what they have failed at was defining their relationships to each other and never mentioned anything about the other members of Kuiper Belt and the Asteroid belt. (Hell Kuiper doesn't even exist in spellcheck - so who isn't taking this seriously)

The labels just help us to memorize and document them, but names don't make us understand anything about them. Lets educate through understanding.

Hmmm...

"Evil can be caused to others not only by action but also by inaction, and in either case the perpetrator is justly accountable for any resulting injury."

and thus if the earth refuses to move itself out of the path of an oncoming asteroid it is then culpable, at least in part, for the consequences.

When is international "Blame Earth Day" celebrated anyway?

>> ^Bhruic:

Pretty sure you can't blame the Earth for asteroids. Just saying.

>> ^Bhruic:

Pretty sure you can't blame the Earth for asteroids. Just saying.


That's true, but I think the idea is that the real estate value of earth is lowered because the neighborhood is so asteroidy.

Pretty sure you can't blame the Earth for asteroids. Just saying.

In space, no one can hear your sarcasm.

>> ^ForgedReality:

The production values of this video are top notch!
Reminds me of watching stupid indoctrinating films on the overhead projector in grade school.

Looks awesome but what happens when they miscalculate or there's an accident and we find an asteroid hurtling towards Earth? Until we figure the answer to that out I'd say keep it sci-fi...or at least stay away from the near earth ones!

(and I know those are the most cost effective ones...but cost effective doesn't always mean it's right)

>> ^shuac:

Might I suggest a name for the first spacecraft?
The Nostromo.


Thank You, shuac.

I can't believe I've never heard of this book before.
It's on my list now.