Saturday, February 9, 2008

Asteroid 2008 CT1


We add another near miss asteroid to our growing collection. First there was asteroid 2007 WD5 close flyby of Mars, then we have asteroid 2007 TU24 coming within 334,000 miles of Earth now we have a newly discovered asteroid 2008 CT1 missing us by only 84,000 miles on February 5, came from behind the glare of the Sun, didn't see it coming. Now the size is only somewhere between 8-20 metres, still it could have taken out a large city if it actually got through the atmosphere and hit us. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR or Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research Project.


Finally Shuttle Atlantis after a 2 month delay got off the ground to deliver and install the Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station. Video shows that a couple of what they think to be small foam pieces fall of the external fuel tank 2 minutes after launch, and then another piece of foam came off about 7 minutes into the launch. The astronauts spent most of Friday inspecting the Shuttle's heat shield using it's 15m boom and robotic arms. Pilimanary findings look good, no apparent damage.

On a final note, a musical note at that, NASA for the first time ever is using it's Deep Space Network to beam a song, a Beatles song Across The Universe into space, towards the North star Polaris, about 431 light years away. Had to get Yoko Ono's okay, just in case aliens have MP3 capability and do illegal downloads. The real funny part in all this is that some scientists are saying there needs to be more open discussions about the potential risks involved in sending even symbolic messages to potentially evil aliens, that's why I linked the lyrics to the song, maybe a rap song that says "come get a piece of me" over and over again, aliens could consider it a challenge and try to get a piece of us. Maybe they mean the part of the Beatles song were it says "nothing's gonna change my world" as an out and out challenge to the bad aliens, and they might see it as such and come and try to change our world, who knows for sure what aliens think. The song was sent to celebrate the 40th. anniversary when the Beatles recorded the song and the 50th. anniversary of the Beatles and NASA beginnings.

I'll leave you now with another prairie sunset animated gif.

58 comments:

Swubird said...

Bob:

It's pretty scary. Someday one of those asteroids is going to hit us. And like you say, it really doesn't have to be all that big to take out a medium city.

I agree. Beaming music to out to potentially hostile aliens might not be the best strategy. I mean, who's to say what kind of music aliens like? Ha, ha.

HAve a great day.

Anonymous said...

Well hopefully the fourth time isn't a charm Bob. That last one was pretty close considering close in space that is.

I did hear about them beaming that song into space. Come on now, couldn't they have at least picked a gutsier tougher song? Something along the line "Disturbed or Korn" plays? It would give any hostile aliens pause about invading us and at the same time invite cooler aliens to visit. Who knows?
Great post. Informative as always we come to expect from you.
~JD

Max-e said...

Wow that is alarming stuff, but I suppose it makes life interesting.

Maybe the music will scare the aliens off rather than attract them :)

Bob Johnson said...

Hi swubird, for sure we gotta start sending out an assortment of music from the classics to heavy metal, and say no problem if they wanted to download and make copies,lol.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Bob,

I had no idea about the asteroid that came from behind the sun's glare. GULP!!!

YAY! for the shuttle going up again. I heard they are phasing it out by 2110. What will they have next?

What a gorgeous prarie sunset. You're making the winter ZOOOM by. :D

Hugs, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Lol JD, for sure don't want no un cool aliens invading us.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

2010...I better get used to those numbers now. LOL

Hugs, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, max-e, sure does make life interesting, I think to scare the aliens off we have to send suggestive messages deep inside the song, like "these aren't the Earthlings your looking for", lol.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks JJ, it is kinda scary, they say this size asteroid hits Earth once every 10 years, usually over water or unihabited areas, never knew it happened till way after the fact, interesting. Okay you get the right answer the second time round, lol.

Anonymous said...

So we did not see this one coming because it came out from the glare of the sun. About how long was it from the time it was observed coming out of the sun's glare until it passed safely by earth?

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Will, that is essentially the problem with this one, it was discovered only 2 days before it's safe flyby.

The Fool said...

This just goes to show that the asteroid threat could be very real someday. Also that the programs we have in place miss many of the asteroids that could possible come close to Earth. Also I am quite glad that the shuttle finally got off the ground.

The Fool

Anonymous said...

I love your new background! Very nice! Did you get a picture of the lunar eclipse? Wasn't there one last Thursday? Do I have my information right?

How often do asteroids actually hit us, anyway?

I'm full of questions today! LOL.

gt281 said...

I was reading Yahoo headlines this morning when
I noticed this headline “Shuttle flips over near space station”…
What what?? A disaster? Of course not,, just another way
that Yahoo tries to grab attention and be clever…It was just
the shuttle maneuvering into position to dock….
Yahoo should stick to doing stories about Britney,, thats what
their best at anyway……

Michael J. Kannengieser said...

Bob, As an Alien-American I am deeply offended that you'd think that me and my family would travel billions of miles across the universe to destroy you just because we heard heard some silly song. No, we came here to destroy you because we caught a broadcast of the Jerry Springer show. ha ha. Seriously, another asteroid almost missed us? It's bad enough I worry that I'll get caught with a pair of nail clippers in my carry-on at the airport and be jailed, now I have to fear that a sixty foot long chunk of space rock will take out an entire city? That would really stink, unless of course it's Newark, NJ, then I wouldn't feel so bad. Thanks for the informative post, Bob.

Bob Johnson said...

Hi the fool, you just never know, according to spaceweather.com there are 923 potentially hazardous asteroids out there, that's only the ones they know about, they figure they have 80% of the hazardous ones in their sights, that leaves 20% unknown or 230 that may have Earth in their sights. I'm so glad the Shuttle got off the ground too.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol Shirley,and thanks about the background, I like it too, actually the next total Lunar eclipse, is coming up Wednesday Feb 20 8:43pm EST, Hope you get to see it, I will be out weather permitting to get some shots of course.

Small asteroids the size of the one that I talked about every 10 years, but they usually go unnoticed, explode above the atmosphere or crash in the the Earth's oceans/seas, no one is the wiser, the bigger the asteroid the more rare therefore could be hundreds of years in between each occurence.

Right now we know of no asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth for the next hundread years or so, you can only make calculations so far into the future.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol gt128, or Paris, can't forget about Paris.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol Mike, I think if the aliens got a broadcast of JS they would think no intelligent life here take pity on us and move along.

Anonymous said...

Maybe aliens don't care what the lyrics say so long as it has a good beat and they can dance to it?

I love this post...you have a hilarious sense of humor!

RW said...

Great info Bob thanks for keep us up to date. As to the music being beamed into space...well I think that is like a cockroach trying to sing a song to us humans, think about it, we see the cockroach but we sure the hell don't understand what the cockroach is saying or singing lol! That reminds me I need to call a exterminator. Beautiful job on that animated GIF Bob see ya Wednesday!!

kml said...

Hi Bob - My husband is always trying to keep up with those asteroids - he didn't hear about that one either. I'm kind of glad he didn't - 84,000 miles is way too close for his liking, and we would have heard about it until it was gone.

Like the pinks in your sunset - you are getting some great sun shots lately!

Kathy

S-V-H said...

Hi Bob,

I like your sunsets too...:-)and this Asteroids story scares me also a little and I'm happy they don't come straight towards us.

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Hope, lol, I love that saying, we used to watch American Bandstand and whenever they tried out a new song, the kids use to say if they liked it "It's got a good beat and you can dance to it" every time.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol and thanks Roger, too funny but also to true, good luck with your exterminator,lol.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Kathy, the near miss was a surprise to everyone I know as well, I am on the NASA JPL email list, that's how I found out.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Susanne, Me too don't like big or small asteroids coming towards us!!

Anonymous said...

Only two days!!! One of these is eventually going to get us with no warning. I guess the only question is whether it will be in two weeks or two millennium.

Bob Johnson said...

Well put Will!

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Livingsword said...

Hi Bob;

LOL

You know all these near misses reminds me of the way Canada Post delivered the mail! (Nowadays they are pretty good so the joke isn’t quite as sharp, of course email sure helps).

One day I am certain one of our uninvited celestial visitors will crash into our wonderful planetary home and cause a lot of problems…of Biblical proportions…

The astronauts probably set up the video so they could get to play around with more of the robotics. (Thought you could use a good conspiracy theory here) LOL

LOL All those blogs that say the aliens are already here will be disappointed…

It sure does seem this whole illegal aliens conversation in the US is getting out of hand, now they are worried about space aliens…

The lyrics are pretty pathetic, and to think us older people think they can’t make good music nowadays! I think we have nothing to worry about, if aliens can decipher the signal, they will think there is no intelligent life here, either that or they will se it as so bad that they will declare war….

Yet I am not worried if the aliens try to attack, it will take them so much time making sure no foam fell of their ships they will forget where they are going….

Nice gif, the water sure looks like it is rising….

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Alex, sorry to hear about your troubles, I was wondering why you joined my neighborhood again, and when I joined yours again yesterday it seemed to be working, weird.

I've never had problems with BC though, it would really suck to have those kind of problems.

I see it is pending right now, odd your blog doesn't qualify for any of the reasons to have your profile deleted, I'm sure you'll be allowed back on.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, livingsword, yes the Post Office seems to be doing okay lately, I use email mostly anyways, I think they are doing better cause we took the pressure off them with email,lol.

I think the government just likes to say the alien word period, I would trade some Earthly aliens for space aliens any day

I'm thinking they would look at the lyrics and say harmless enough and not even waste their time,lol. At least back when I was younger the lyrics were on average pretty harmless, now some are just downright scary, and annoying, like I said send a rap song out there and we are doomed, how can you tell I not a rap fan,lol.

Lol about the foam, I'm hoping the next generation of space vehicles drops the whole foam thing, would have loved to been a fly on the wall to hear that conversation when they decided to go with foam.

Livingsword said...

Hi Bob;

LOL

I’m not sure which way you are going with the aliens!

I’m really not old enough to know what kind of music was around before the 80’s…. LOLYeah right…

The good thing is most people can’t understand half of what the rappers are saying. When I was young I couldn’t understand what half the punk bands I listened to were saying, and I had blue hair etc…. LOL

Maybe the next generation of shuttles could make use of Jell-O instead….…. Or how about all those stir sticks from Starbucks? (I told you before they should get Honda in on contract)

Bob Johnson said...

Hey livingsword

Lol, back into space with them, I would really love to be adbucted, like Close Encounters, loved that show.

I'll admit, I knew some of the sixties songs off by heart, punk at least had more then one chord, actually it was quite good music, lyrics lacking, but I am a very musical kinda guy, My wife wonders why I like some of the artists I do, I look at the music not the person or the hub-bub surrounding the person, hub-bub is a term we used in the 60's, you probably wouldn't remember way back then,lol.

No more Shuttles, they had to retire it, couldn't figure how to make it work without the foam,lol.

Oswegan said...

Cool. Maybe they will come in peace. . . . man.

Willshiresllc said...

Another fine post Bob. Intriguing to think that many asteroids have come that close and haven't hit us yet. Doesn't that make our odds of being hit increase dramatically? Like driving a car every day. The less accidents you have the worse your odds get? LoL :-). And they need to stop sending music into outer space. I didn't say they could use my tax money for that kind of BS. They need to be using my money to develop clean energy alternatives and get us off the petroleum. What a waste.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol oswegan.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Bill, lol about the odds, but probably true. Tried to goggle how much it costs to beam something into space, couldn't find anything, would be interesting to know.

myonlyphoto said...

Bob you are funny, lol, the musical note comment really made me laugh. You know the funny thing is that we still hope that there is someone out there, and they look like us, or they may be they are good or evil like us. I watched many movies and you probably did too, have you ever seen anything really different than human being that portrait the alien. All the aliens, or creatures, usually are crosses between a human, dinosaur, dragons, cat or dog or fish, you name it. We take one eye out, add third one etc., lol, add strength and superpowers, nice to have, lol. I think the latest theory I heard that there is someone out there, and they are just mirror image of us, and this theory is just based on some mathematical calculations, and the light or particle theory. So next time if you see me writing here and I am much nicer, then may be it is second me, lol. Oh well, better run and read your other post, btw beautiful sunset gif, you are really getting better and better, and these images are really cool. Did you take this photo with your 40D? Anna :)

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Bob Johnson said...

Lol, yes we are so great that the aliens look like us,lol. I guess it's because we can relate to it, more scary. Thanks, every pic now is with the Canon40D, getting more used to it, I've already taken over 1200 shots, wow, glad I didn't get a film camera, imagine the cost, and you wouldn't be able to use photoshop, what did they do in the olden days?,lol.

myonlyphoto said...

Bob, in the olden days, lol, they did what I did, stored all their photos in photo albums, and photo boxes, and I have so many, that everytime I look that box, I say thank God for the digital technology. I have 500 Gb external hardrive that I dedicated for all my photos, it really works out well, just in case you want to get one, it is Western Digital from Costco, I think I paid about 180 dollars before taxes. BTW I got this in the email, just in case you are interested to enter: http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/apogee/2008/02_mars.asp

Anna :)

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, Anna, thanks for the info, just the 1200 I've taken it is eating up my hard drive,lol.

Livingsword said...

Hi Bob;

I had a friend that once went missing for a week and claimed to be abducted by an alien, she lived in Seattle (the alien not my friend).

I like almost all kinds of music except for rap (I don’t mind some hip hop), country and really sappy “Christian music”. I even like classical and opera.

I like a lot from the 60’s to the 80’s, 90’s to present not so much. Rock, new wave, disco, heavy metal, soul, and reggae I like.

My favorite music group is U2, who also happen to be my favorite Christian band.

Shirley Twofeathers said...

I probably haven't told you this in a while, but I do dearly love your blog... and even when I don't comment, I do visit. I think about you when I see stars and the moon, and know that I can always find something interesting here. You are deeply appreciated! And yes, I am planning to see that lunar eclipse on Wednesday. I hope you get pictures of it.

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, livingsword, the alien lived in space? you and I have the same music tastes, I have loved U2 from the beginning, before they became the group to love.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Shirley!, hope you and I both get good weather, 2 years is a long time to wait for the next one.

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