Russian Sky Weirdness

Russian sky and space weirdness continues. We've had the Indigo Weave ("poor Russian weapon"), pyramid UFOs over the Kremlin, and now this: news from Russia's space agency that it policy to:"stroke a entire asteroid off course and trim down the likelihood of earth control, ordinary but U.S. scientists say such a scheme is bizarre."The asteroid is Apophis; 885 foot (offer or hunt for I'm sure) object that isn't horrible US scientists much:"NASA had put the likelihood that Apophis can hit Den in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid's pathway, the agency distorted its citation to 1-in-250,000.""NASA whispered unusual directly encounter in 2068 strength hold a 1-in-330,000 possibility of control."""It wasn't anything to extreme anxiety about in front. Now it's ordinary beneath so," whispered Steve Chesley, an astronomer among the About Den Pattern Put out at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory."Russia sees items differently:"Without mentioning NASA's conclusions, Perminov whispered that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is in receipt of closer and may hit the planet. "I don't restart accusatory, but it seems to me it can hit the Den by 2032," Perminov whispered."""Grassroots lives are at blockade. We require pay countless hundred million dollars and hearth a system that would dub us to watch over a collide, great than sit and sustain for it to arrive on the scene and muffle hundreds of thousands of workforce," Perminov whispered."Russia's space agency feels secure they can hearth what they draw to hearth in time, and productively full-length their mission. But this last way in, by the Orderliness of Astronomy Director Boris Shustov, is cryptic:"Apophis is exposition a metaphorical outline, submit are numberless other unruly objects we gossip little about"The juicy lure to conjecture that this study hands us is too spellbinding to break... UFOs? Disclosure? War? Enthusiast posturing? Theatrical events: bookkeeping, alien, etc?"Apophis" is the Egyptian:"rascal serpent of bewilderment whom Ra, as sun god, destroys every one hours of daylight at jump"Seeing that we can't do among that fun fact of concealed imagery! (Commit to memory the recent BVM farsightedness in Egypt formerly this month.) In the context of the ahead of mentioned Russian displays, the policy to plan to plan an attack on Apophis, compound among Shustov's study, we can deduce higher Fortean and on the whole eerie items to elaborate surrouding Russia.ClothRUSSIA MAY Coerce Art TO Surprise Improbable ASTEROIDhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu russia asteroid encounterInfopleasehttp://dictionary.infoplease.com/apophisApophis, Antagonist of Re http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/apep.htm

Nasa Web Alert It Called Apophis It 390M Wide And It Could Hit Earth In 31 Years Time

IT'S CALLED APOPHIS. IT'S 390M WIDE. AND IT COULD HIT EARTH IN 31 YEARS' TIME

Scientists call for plans to change asteroid's path. Developing technology could take decades

January 2013 update: Apophis passes by Earth

Artist's impression of an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. Photograph: Frank Whitney/Getty Images

Alok JhaWednesday 7 December 2005 16.19 GMT

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274In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards Earth from outerspace. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.Nasa has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time left to decide. At a recent meeting of experts in near-Earth objects (NEOs) in London, scientists said it could take decades to design, test and build the required technology to deflect the asteroid. Monica Grady, an expert in meteorites at the Open University, said: "It's a question of when, not if, a near Earth object collides with Earth. Many of the smaller objects break up when they reach the Earth's atmosphere and have no impact. However, a NEO larger than 1km [wide] will collide with Earth every few hundred thousand years and a NEO larger than 6km, which could cause mass extinction, will collide with Earth every hundred million years. We are overdue for a big one."Apophis had been intermittently tracked since its discovery in June last year but, in December, it started causing serious concern. Projecting the orbit of the asteroid into the future, astronomers had calculated that the odds of it hitting the Earth in 2029 were alarming. As more observations came in, the odds got higher.Having more than 20 years warning of potential impact might seem plenty of time. But, at last week's meeting, Andrea Carusi, president of the Spaceguard Foundation, said that the time for governments to make decisions on what to do was now, to give scientists time to prepare mitigation missions. At the peak of concern, Apophis asteroid was placed at four out of 10 on the Torino scale - a measure of the threat posed by an NEO where 10 is a certain collision which could cause a global catastrophe. This was the highest of any asteroid in recorded history and it had a 1 in 37 chance of hitting the Earth. The threat of a collision in 2029 was eventually ruled out at the end of last year.

There are no shortage of ideas on how to deflect asteroids. The Advanced Concepts Team at the European Space Agency have led the effort in designing a range of satellites and rockets to nudge asteroids on a collision course for Earth into a different orbit.Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer from Queen's University Belfast, said: "When it does pass close to us on April 13 2029, the Earth will deflect it and change its orbit. There's a small possibility that if it passes through a particular point in space, the so-called keyhole,... the Earth's gravity will change things so that when it comes back around again in 2036, it will collide with us." The chance of Apophis passing through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is 1 in 5,500 based on current information.No technology has been left unconsidered, even potentially dangerous ideas such as nuclear powered spacecraft. "The advantage of nuclear propulsion is a lot of power," said Prof Fitzsimmons. "The negative thing is that... we haven't done it yet. Whereas with solar electric propulsion, there are several spacecraft now that do use this technology so we're fairly confident it would work."The favoured method is also potentially the easiest - throwing a spacecraft at an asteroid to change its direction. Esa plans to test this idea with its Don Quixote mission, where two satellites will be sent to an asteroid. One of them, Hidalgo, will collide with the asteroid at high speed while the other, Sancho, will measure the change in the object's orbit. Decisions on the actual design of these probes will be made in the coming months, with launch expected some time in the next decade. One idea that seems to have no support from astronomers is the use of explosives.Prof Fitzsimmons. "If you explode too close to impact, perhaps you'll get hit by several fragments rather than one, so you spread out the area of damage."In September, scientists at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities began computer simulations to work out the feasibility of changing the directions of asteroids on a collision course for Earth. In spring next year, there will be another opportunity for radar observations of Apophis that will help astronomers work out possible future orbits of the asteroid more accurately.If, at that stage, they cannot rule out an impact with Earth in 2036, the next chance to make better observations will not be until 2013. Nasa has argued that a final decision on what to do about Apophis will have to be made at that stage."It may be a decision in 2013 whether or not to go ahead with a full-blown mitigation mission, but we need to start planning it before 2013," said Prof Fitzsimmons. In 2029, astronomers will know for sure if Apophis will pose a threat in 2036. If the worst-case scenarios turn out to be true and the Earth is not prepared, it will be too late. "If we wait until 2029, it would seem unlikely that you'd be able to do anything about 2036," said Mr Yates.http://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/dec/07/spaceexploration.research

Defending The Earth Against Incoming Asteroids Using Paintballs

An MIT graduate student proposes covering Earth bound asteroids with paint using paint pellets and paint balls to deflect its trajectory from hitting our planet.

The Earth has always been in danger of being hit by large space objects such as comets and asteroids. The extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, is said to have been caused by an asteroid ten to fifteen kilometers wide hitting the Earth.

According to Nick Bostrom who did a study on human extinction scenarios and its related hazards, every 500,000 years, an asteroid 1km in diameter strikes the earth and a 5km asteroid every ten million years. To get an idea on how powerful asteroids of this size are, a five to ten meter asteroid packs as much power as an atomic bomb.

APOPHIS

Asteroid 2004 MN4 known as Apophis has a diameter of 270 meters and weighs around 27 gigatons. One gigaton is one billion tons (1x109). According to its present trajectory, Apophis will have a close call with the Earth on Friday, 13 April 2029.

The asteroid will be so close that it will be passing below the communications satellites orbiting the Earth. Apophis will fly past the Earth just 18,600 miles above it. Earth satellites orbit at 22,300 miles.

Although it will not hit the Earth at the time, there is a slim chance of hitting the Earth seven years later. It all depends on its initial encounter with the Earth in 2029. If Apophis passes through a region of space above the Earth called the Keyhole, it will directly collide with the Earth on 13 April 2036. The Keyhole is around 600 miles wide and scientists cannot accurately predict if Apophis will pass through it or not. There is a 1 in a million chance that the asteroid will pass thru the keyhole. (Watch Neil DeGrasse Tyson's explanation below for a clearer picture.)

MOVE AN ASTEROID 2012

Apophis has been a growing concern with scientists. They have been thinking of ways to try and avert the disaster this early in time. China's Tsinghua University proposed launching a solar sail powered spacecraft that will move the asteroid away from the keyhole. Some propose landing a probe that will land on the asteroid and push it away using an ion engine. The European Space Agency is looking at launching a projectile or spacecraft to collide with it, hopefully changing its' direction.

Video: Neil DeGrasse Tyson discusses Apophis and the destruction it can bring

In line with this, the United Nations through its Space Generation Advisory Council, launched a competition to come up with original ideas relating to Earth-threatening Near Earth Objects (NEOs). The competition named "Move An Asteroid 2012" focuses on three areas:

* The safe deflection of an Earth-bound NEO
* The detection of NEOs
* A global impact warning system

Sung Wook Paek, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics won the competition with his novel and original idea; paint the asteroid white.

PAINTED

According to Paek, two rounds of pellets filled with paint powder will be shot at the asteroid. Around five tons of paint would be needed to cover the front and back of the asteroid. The paint will increase the asteroid's reflectivity or albedo by more than twice its usual. The initial force from the pellets would bump an asteroid off course; over time, the sun's photons would deflect the asteroid even more.

Video: Deflecting An Asteroid With Paintballs

As the pellets hit the asteroid's surface, they would burst apart, splattering the space rock with a fine, five-micrometer-layer of paint. The effect is not instantaneous. It will take around 20 years before the full effect of solar radiation pressure to kick in and successfully pull the asteroid off its trajectory.

Lindley Johnson, program manager for NASA's Near Earth Objects Observation Program, says, "It is very important that we develop and test a few deflection techniques sufficiently so that we know we have a viable 'toolbox' of deflection capabilities to implement when we inevitably discover an asteroid on an impact trajectory,"

William Ailor, principal engineer for Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., adds that the potential for an asteroid collision is a long-term challenge for scientists and engineers.

"These types of analyses are really timely because this is a problem we'll have basically forever," Ailor says. "It's nice that we're getting young people thinking about it in detail, and I really applaud that."

RELATED LINKS

Paintballs may deflect an incoming asteroid

Move An Asteroid 2012

Existential Risks

Defending The Earth From Asteroids

JPL Near-Earth Object Program - Nasa

Study Shows Proof That Moon Was Formed From Early Earth Collision With Planetary Body

Rock Layers Show Evidence of Heavy Asteroid Impacts During the Archeon Era 3.8 Billion Years Ago

NASA Spacecraft New Horizons May Be In Peril As It Nears Pluto

MIT News: Asteroid Vesta Once Had Dynamo That Generated Magnetic Field Like The Earth

Japan Space Agency JAXA To Launch Spacecraft Hayabusa 2 To Rendezvous With Asteroid

NASA Debunks End of World by Supernova Scenario

A Small Planet Hidden in the Asteroid Belt?

Meteorites From Asteroid Vesta May Give Clues To Origin of the Solar System



Credit: lights-in-sky.blogspot.com