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Three relatively large near Earth asteroids have just been discovered.

Chicken Little report: In October of last year three relatively large near Earth asteroids were discovered unexpectedly.

Read the report, which is the second notice at the link. I missed it at the time. Each of these new discoveries was interesting and surprising. Key quote: “The delayed discovery of 2013 US10 is a bit harder to explain, since current population models suggest that almost all near-Earth asteroids of this size and orbit should have already been found.” Apparently not.

In related news, a several hundred foot wide asteroid zipped past the Earth this evening.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • Joe

    Silly question, are the asteroid fields moving or stationary, or is the earths motion going Through said fields, we always go through the percieds about the same time of year? A while ago, you had a post about how the earth went through the fingers of the milky way and the earth would go through mass extinctions, any connection?

  • If I understand your question, the answer is that the various asteroid fields move and interweave with each other, as does the Earth. The Perseids are just another asteroid group, though very small. If there happens to be a large asteroid in one of these groups, and it hits the Earth, then boom, we have a problem.

    We presently have a reasonably good census of what’s out there, but as this story shows, there are certainly some surprises still to be found.

  • wodun

    Nothing to title=worry about. Nothing title=at all

  • Joe

    Like I said silly question, I had never thought about the orbital mechanics of an asteroid field or even a comet, thanks for making me think, good answer!

  • Joe

    Thanks for the visuals Wodun, adds a little perspective!

  • wodun

    Just remember the lines that represent the asteroid’s orbits are not to scale of the asteroid’s size.

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