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Near-Earth asteroid 'Moby Dick' goes missing


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A sizable asteroid measuring 270m across that was due to pass by the Earth seems to have disappeared.

The space rock dubbed 2000 EM26 was set to pass by us within a distance of 3. 4 million kilometers, but when astronomers directed their telescopes to get a good look at it the asteroid seemed to have mysteriously vanished and was nowhere to be seen.

Read More: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/262626/near-earth-asteroid-moby-dick-goes-missing

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Thar she blows.......Us up!

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Or maybe it wasn't an asteroid at all...(cue twilight zone music) lol

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I-I hope it's not heading to Earth... *horrified*

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Or maybe it wasn't an asteroid at all...(cue twilight zone music) lol

...You mean like it went invisible just before landing?And now they are having lunch with the president? Discussing plans on what to do about the HUMAN problem? Lol..im just kidding...
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Only one person can find it. Somebody call Captain Ahab! :w00t:

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Or the right question is; who is protecting us ? Is the second asteroid this year mysteriously disappearing...

Edited by qxcontinuum
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What would be the cause of this "disappearance." bad math? If they had monitored the asteroid sequentially over a period of time and plotted its orbit and relative speed, it's hard to understand how they lost it. But perhaps I don't understand the variables and am being too simplistic.

Let's hope if one posses a threat to the Earth, say a big one that will pass inside the Moon's orbit, they don't "lose" that one also.

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Probably was just affected by the gravity well of something while passing through the solar system, or hit another asteroid or something. Not aliens. As cool as it would be.

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And some of us want to trust that they can divert one. They can't even keep track of them.

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And some of us want to trust that they can divert one. They can't even keep track of them.

Actually they keep track of tens of thousands.

This one had been seen once before and has not been observed since it was first discovered 14 years ago. Since it was only seen on one pass there would be limited information about it. With each pass that an asteroid makes the data can be fine tuned making future predictions about its whereabouts more accurate. When it is re-acquired (and eventually it will be) refinements of it's orbital parameters will be made making it more likely that it will be tracked on future passes.

Remember these are only the initial observations made by telescopes looking in the exact area they expected it to be. It may very well turn up in other images not yet fully studied. It does not take a huge error in the calculations to miss an object such as this. After 14 years a 0.0008% error would lead to the asteroid arriving an hour earlier or later than expected, a 0.02% error would equate to a day early or late.

The other thing to remember is that things have moved on in 14 years. The dedicated computerised network of telescopes which locate and track them were in their infancy, if they existed at all. Asteroid hunting is taken more seriously now.

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All ya need is one...just one.Ask the dinosaurs.... Oh wait...Never mind.

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Maybe the Grey's or Reptilians gave it a little nudge away from the Earth...we should be thankful ;)

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Or the right question is; who is protecting us ? Is the second asteroid this year mysteriously disappearing...

That is exactly what I've been wondering too :)

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This is further proof that certain asteroids are not merely space rocks, but intelligent creatures (similar in appearance to real asteroids) that travel through Space and can alter their paths at will. We know that many Earth lifeforms are able to take on the appearance of their environment or disguise themselves as other living/non-living things.

Edited by Ashyne
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Actually they keep track of tens of thousands.

This one had been seen once before and has not been observed since it was first discovered 14 years ago. Since it was only seen on one pass there would be limited information about it. With each pass that an asteroid makes the data can be fine tuned making future predictions about its whereabouts more accurate. When it is re-acquired (and eventually it will be) refinements of it's orbital parameters will be made making it more likely that it will be tracked on future passes.

Remember these are only the initial observations made by telescopes looking in the exact area they expected it to be. It may very well turn up in other images not yet fully studied. It does not take a huge error in the calculations to miss an object such as this. After 14 years a 0.0008% error would lead to the asteroid arriving an hour earlier or later than expected, a 0.02% error would equate to a day early or late.

The other thing to remember is that things have moved on in 14 years. The dedicated computerised network of telescopes which locate and track them were in their infancy, if they existed at all. Asteroid hunting is taken more seriously now.

I'll stick with my objections. They were also wrong on Uranus s orbit too. They didn't.t figure that one out until they found Pluto.

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