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Asteroid 2015 TB145

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  • 19-10-2015 10:38am
    #1
    josip
    Registered Users Posts: 13,990 ✭✭✭✭


    This asteroid was first discovered on the 10th of October 2015 and will pass by Earth at a distance of 500,000km on the 31st of October 2015.
    It's diameter is estimated to be 320m, which if it had been on collision course with Earth would have produced a c.5,000 Megaton impact, enough to destroy a reasonable area of land or more likely, produce a substantial tsunami.
    Although the miss distance is fairly large relative to the diameter of the Earth (12,742km) the discovery of it only 21 days before it passes by Earth would mean that our only option, had it been on collision course with Earth, would have been to hunker down.
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    #2
    morebabies
    Registered Users Posts: 539 ✭✭✭morebabies


    And it's been described as having an "extremely eccentric " orbit and an "unusually high velocity ". It's one for the doom-mongers alright but could someone explain a little here in layman's terms what the extremely eccentric orbit means please? I goggled it but still confused.
    Just out of interest like.


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    #3
    Maximus Alexander
    Registered Users Posts: 13,080 ✭✭✭✭Maximus Alexander


    morebabies wrote: »
    And it's been described as having an "extremely eccentric " orbit and an "unusually high velocity ". It's one for the doom-mongers alright but could someone explain a little here in layman's terms what the extremely eccentric orbit means please? I goggled it but still confused.

    Eccentric just means 'not circular'. Things in eccentric orbits around the sun get closer to it at one side of their orbit, and farther away from it at the other. Whereas, the Earth, for example, has a fairly circular orbit and is always roughly the same distance from the sun.


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    #4
    Mickeroo
    Administrators, Computer Games Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 32,293 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Mickeroo


    Aren't "near" misses like this a relatively regular occurrence?


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    #5
    josip
    Registered Users Posts: 13,990 ✭✭✭✭josip


    Mickeroo wrote: »
    Aren't "near" misses like this a relatively regular occurrence?

    Yes, but usually they're known about months or years in advance, or they're quite small and thus harder to detect.
    NASA says that the object is expected to safely pass by the Earth and is following an eccentric and high-inclination orbit, which may help explain why it was not discovered until October 10 of this year.

    This is substantial and fairly close before it was detected.


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