Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Asteroid to hit Earth before US election ?


UM-Bot

Recommended Posts

 

This was on the news this morning.  The rock is 6 feet across and would burn up in the atmosphere.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, RoofGardener said:

HA... the lengths Joe Biden will go to to avoid debating Trump live !! :P

trump and Pence are the ones who need to be afraid. Especially if the debates are fact checked live, as they should be.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, OpenMindedSceptic said:

Feels like a non-story

Well it's an interesting story.

Either it will be only the sixth time that an impact has been predicted before it happens (and the first time that an impact prediction will have been made more than a day before the event) or it will be one of closest fly pasts of an asteroid ever observed. 

This is a major achievement in the race to log potentially hazardous asteroids. 

As @OverSword has pointed out this asteroid is small, so small in fact that it is not considered potentially harmful. If it entered over a populated area the sonic boom and noise it generated when it exploded might rattle a few windows. A few stone, or small rock, sized meteorites might make it to the surface. However the information gained by being able to observe such an event will be invaluable to scientists for refining their models of asteroid impacts. 

The reality is that it almost certainly going to miss. 2018VP1 is currently given just a 0.41% chance of hitting Earth.

Earth is 71% water covered and so 2018VP1 has just a 0.12% chance of entering over dry land.

95% of humanity lives on just 10% of the land surface and so there is just a 0.012% chance of this asteroid entering over a populated area.

Even if this object hits Earth it is likely to go totally unnoticed except by satellites... but that doesn't make it a non-story. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Well it's an interesting story.

Either it will be only the sixth time that an impact has been predicted before it happens (and the first time that an impact prediction will have been made more than a day before the event) or it will be one of closest fly pasts of an asteroid ever observed. 

This is a major achievement in the race to log potentially hazardous asteroids. 

As @OverSword has pointed out this asteroid is small, so small in fact that it is not considered potentially harmful. If it entered over a populated area the sonic boom and noise it generated when it exploded might rattle a few windows. A few stone, or small rock, sized meteorites might make it to the surface. However the information gained by being able to observe such an event will be invaluable to scientists for refining their models of asteroid impacts. 

The reality is that it almost certainly going to miss. 2018VP1 is currently given just a 0.41% chance of hitting Earth.

Earth is 71% water covered and so 2018VP1 has just a 0.12% chance of entering over dry land.

95% of humanity lives on just 10% of the land surface and so there is just a 0.012% chance of this asteroid entering over a populated area.

Even if this object hits Earth it is likely to go totally unnoticed except by satellites... but that doesn't make it a non-story. 

Ermmmmmm, yeah it does make it a non story. Headline: there is a 99.6% chance that a an object we are tracking won't hit earth. And if it does, it will likely be unnoticed.

Now in the sports news today, our reporter talks to the team with a near zero chance of winning at the Olympics next year. 

In business, we are talking to the CEO today of a business with a less than 1 in a 100 chance they will float on the Dow Jones.

Later we take you on board a passenger plane as it takes off. They're very safe but you never know.

Non-story!

Edited by OpenMindedSceptic
omitted a word that aided readability
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, OpenMindedSceptic said:

Ermmmmmm, yeah it does make it a non story.

Turn your ego down a bit. Just because it's your opinion doesn't make it fact. Some of us are capable of grasping why it's an interesting story. 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Turn your ego down a bit. Just because it's your opinion doesn't make it fact. Some of us are capable of grasping why it's an interesting story. 

And your opinion was what again?

This is a forum.

A place where people share opinions and ideas.

Why are you here?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, bigjonalien said:

just before an election strange. Lol

What's strange? Objects this small pass close to Earth regularly.

Quote

Small asteroids a few meters in size are detected passing between Earth and the Moon’s orbit several times a month.

Source: NASA

The only unusual thing about this asteroid is that there is a small chance of hitting the Earth... noticing such objects before they hit is rare.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
51 minutes ago, docyabut2 said:

could be like when Russia had .a meter that broke windows

https://abcnews.go.com/International/meteor-blast-injury-toll-russia-tops-1200/story?id=18510055

More than 1,200 people were injured

 

That meteor was 66 feet across, more than 10 times larger than 2018VP1. 2018VP1 is far too small to cause the kind of damage experienced at Chelyabinsk.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2020 at 7:32 AM, OpenMindedSceptic said:

And your opinion was what again?

This is a forum.

A place where people share opinions and ideas.

Why are you here?

I'm here because this is science section of the site. If you understood science you would realise that it is fact based, not opinion based.

I am here to bring facts to counter ill-informed opinions. In science not all opinions are equal. 

 

  • Like 3
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only thing unusual about this particular object, is we know it's coming.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/earth-hit-by-17-meteors-a-day

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/8/2020 at 12:50 AM, Waspie_Dwarf said:

I'm here because this is science section of the site. If you understood science you would realise that it is fact based, not opinion based.

I am here to bring facts to counter ill-informed opinions. In science not all opinions are equal. 

 

The forum part of the science section. And this is still a non story as time will demonstrate. Wonder how your facts got you to a point where you think it will be a story? Let's see how many news outlets pick up on this so called story. I will put November 3rd in my calendar and be sure to check. Must go, gotta yawn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2020 at 2:32 PM, OpenMindedSceptic said:

Why are you here?

He's here because he knows the science stuff :) your name seems a bit of a contradiction ;) seems a bit closed minded to me :D

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, DingoLingo said:

He's here because he knows the science stuff :) your name seems a bit of a contradiction ;) seems a bit closed minded to me :D

Oh dear 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 9/8/2020 at 12:50 AM, Waspie_Dwarf said:

I'm here because this is science section of the site. If you understood science you would realise that it is fact based, not opinion based.

I am here to bring facts to counter ill-informed opinions. In science not all opinions are equal. 

 

I thought I'd wait a couple of extra days after the collision.

What happened?

I bet the media gave been all over this.

The scientists must be in deep analysis by now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.