Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 105E & 106E: A Football Field-Sized Asteroid Comes Near & A Skyscraper-Sized Asteroid To Pay A Visit
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- I was observing with the 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon when 2014 YE42 caught my attention.
- 2014 XL7 crosses the Earth’s orbit at eight miles per second twice a year.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
105E: A Football Field Sized Asteroid Comes Near
I was observing with the Catalina Sky Survey, NASA funded, University of Arizona, 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon when a bright fast moving point of light caught my attention. It seemed much too bright not to be known, but when I checked with the Minor Planet Center, it was not in any of their catalogues. It was was subsequently observed by more than a dozen telescopes scattered around the world and given the name 2014 YE42.
This football field sized asteroid orbits the Sun on a very elliptical path which takes it from between the orbits of Earth and Venus out to 3/4 of the way to Jupiter. At it closest point 2014 YE42 can come less than half the distance to the Moon from us. It is visible in human telescopes for about a month every three and a half years.
When I spotted this small asteroid it was about 12 times the distance to the Moon from us and was traveling at nearly nine miles per second towards planet Earth.
It is likely that there are several hundred thousand asteroids of this size which come near the Earth. Statistics indicate, that one similar to 2014 YE42, will strike the Earth every few thousand years. Such an event would release the energy of several million tons of TNT and have a serious effect on the human population. For example one smaller than 2014 YE42 impacted the Earth in 1908 and killed 80 million trees over an 800 square mile area.
The asteroid hunting community will be keeping track of 2014 YE42,in the extremely unlikely event that its path is changed, to make it a threat, as it passes other objects in space.
106E: A Skyscraper Sized Asteroid To Pay A Visit
In the distant future, an asteroid, with the diameter of the height of the One Worldwide Plaza skyscraper building in New York City, will likely make a close approach to planet Earth. It was discovered by my Catalina Sky Survey teammates Rik Hill and Jess Johnson using the University of Arizona, 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon.
This newly discovered asteroid, now named, 2014 XL7’s diameter is about the same as the height of a 50 story building. Amazingly, our equipment is sensitive enough to have detected it 50 million miles from Earth as it streaked along at eight miles per second towards us. 2014 XL7 crosses the Earth’s orbit twice a year. Rarely it can come halfway to the Moon from planet Earth. This is good news since if an asteroid of this size were to impact the Earth it would likely release the energy two and a half times greater than the most powerful Hydrogen bomb ever exploded. Such an impact would probably devastate a hurricane sized foot print area on the Earth’s surface.
2014 XL7 makes close approaches to Venus, Earth, and Mars. Each such encounter can cause its orbit to change. It has been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid which means that the asteroid hunting community will be keeping special track of it. The goal of the NASA Near Earth Object program is to find this type of asteroid at least 50 years before it is a threat to our home.
Serious scientific and engineering studies are currently underway to determine the best way to cause a large asteroid like 2014 XL7, to miss us, should it become on a collision course with planet Earth.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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