All things Astronomy

[Slowbee]

Nathrix - any chance of a title change to "astronomy for hubbers" ?

[bertusras]

thank you for the insight here...clearly an expert, enthusiast  and much appreciated

 

Thanks, appreciate the comment, but by no means an expert, just an enthusiast.

 

I'm I correct to think that this comet (broken up in 5 fragments now, reminds me of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9) will be passing through too close for comfort than anything we've seen before in our lifetime? 

 

I don't want to say definitely no, because a) I'm not qualified, and b) nothing is absolute, but it is highly, highly unlikely.

 

First of all, the comet's entry into the inner solar system has it passing a long way away from Earth (as above, some 116 million kilometers)

 

 

And secondly, the comet's orbit isn't even on the same plane as the rest of the solar system:

 

 

So even though it appears to be passing very close to Venus, it's still way, way off. 

 

If you want to speculate about possible "doomsday" comets/asteroids, have a look at NASA's Near Earth Object database:

 

 

There will be an asteroid zipping by the Earth tomorrow at less distance than the Moon is away from the earth (bear in mind it's still 360,000km away, Geostationary satellites orbit at a tenth of that distance), but it's only 13-30m in diameter. The next big one to pass is 1998 OR2, but about 16 times farther away than the Moon. It is a couple of kilometers in diameter though.

 

Below is the Top 10 closest (known) passes in the future:

 

 

If you're interested in reading some more, have a look at ʻOumuamua, the first known interstellar (i.e. not from our Solar System) object ever detected.

[nathrix]

Wow!

 

Here’s how to see that huge asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 that will safely pass closest to Earth on April 29

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/asteroid-52768-1998-or2-april-2020-how-to-see

 

[Slowbee]

Nice one!
 

[Slowbee]

https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2020/03/06/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-52768-1998-or2-close-encounter-online-observations-28-apr-2020/

Going to try this on the 29th!

[nathrix]

[bertusras]

2020 HX3 will be zipping past Earth today at approximately 0.65LD

 

[bertusras]

Here's a possible successor to ATLAS

 

It's already at 8th Magnitude, possibly brightening up to 4th (6th is observable with the naked eye) around the 12th of May, but it will sit low on the twilight horizon, which might make it hard to spot. We'll see what happens!

 

[Slowbee]

I can get Stellarium to fast forward on my laptop - but for some reason I cannot find the fast forward date button on the tablet.

[bertusras]

Can't help you with that one unfortunately, I usually used SkySafari and SkyMap on my mobile devices. Perhaps there is an additional menu when you swipe from the side?

[Shebeen]

https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2020/03/06/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-52768-1998-or2-close-encounter-online-observations-28-apr-2020/

 

Going to try this on the 29th!

so this is tomorrow. what time and where must we look? (I'm in CT)

[nathrix]

[bertusras]

so this is tomorrow. what time and where must we look? (I'm in CT)

 

I wouldn't bother to be honest, unless you have a telescope. The object is 10.something magnitude, you'll not be able to see it with the naked eye. You might be able to spot it with large aperture binocs, but if you don't know what you're looking for I really don't think you'll even be able to spot it.

 

But nevertheless, if you want to give it a go. Any time after dark you can look in a South-East direction, fairly high up in the sky. Use the Southern Cross (4x Green) as your guide, and the two companion stars (2x Green) Hadar and Rigel Kentaurus to guide you. You'll notice two other slightly dimmer stars (2x Orange) to the right and up from the Southern Cross. If you draw a perpendicular line off the top right intersect of those two stars, and extend it about double the distance of the distance between those two stars, you'll be in the correct area.

 

 

Then we'll zoom into the area a bit more, where you need to locate a star named HIP 57700 circled in Pink

 

 

Then we'll zoom in a bit more and you might now be able to spot the asteroid

 

 

See, simple.

 

You have to bear in mind that this thing is barely 2km in diameter, at a distance of 6.2 million kilometres. It has an apparent (or angular) diameter of 322.6 nanoradians. An Airbus A380 at cruise altitude has an apparent diameter of 7.3 miliradians, or in the same factor - 0.322 microradians vs 7300 microradians. A variance of about 22,500x. Point is, it's super super tiny.

 

Edit: Corrections made.

Edited May 2, 2020 by bertusras

[nathrix]