[meteorite-list] An Asteroid Headed Our Way (2004 MN4-99942Apophis)

From: Michael Farmer <meteoritehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 25 21:15:10 2005
Message-ID: <004701c5917f$781df330$0200a8c0_at_S0031628003>

Is this a joke? Are all people from Kingman this stupid?
Tom, I normally have no problem with you, but this is outrageous.
No wonder Bush won the election, with the lack of education showing in that
last post, I am appalled. No wonder the Republicans put the gay marriage
issue on many state ballots. It sure riles up the otherwise non-voting
pupulation I see.
You homophobia does not belong on this list.
And no, I am not gay, but I will not come home to read this idiocy on the
Meteorite List.
Take it to the redneck trailer-trash gay hating list, but KEEP IT OFF THIS
LIST!
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Knudson" <peregrineflier_at_npgcable.com>
To: "Pete Pete" <rsvp321_at_hotmail.com>; <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] An Asteroid Headed Our Way (2004
MN4-99942Apophis)


> Hi Pete and list,
> "Do you really believe "mother nature" is a calculating, sentient,
> deity-like
> existence in control of all things in the universe?
> Or would the comet/asteroid be doing the thinking?"
>
> No, of course not, but I do believe s _ _ t happens! If humans cause a
> disaster, we should fix it, like oil spills and the ozone layer, but other
> things should be left alone. Look at the fire problems humans created at
> Yellowstone, they thought for years they should put out all fires, but
> then
> learned to let them burn.
> I am not afraid to die, I believe when it's your time, it is your time, I
> have been around plenty long enough. I would love for the last thing I
> ever
> see, to be the best fireball ever, what a way to go!
>
> "Also, your belief about the origin of AIDS is urban legend - you need a
> new
> source for information."
>
> I heard they traced it back to the start, a gay bath
> house in SF, a gay cruise, a whore house in Africa, and a monkey F_ _ ker
> who frequented the said whore house, but that is only saw on the discovery
> channel, but they could have wrong! : )
>
> Thanks, Tom
> peregrineflier <><
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pete Pete" <rsvp321_at_hotmail.com>
> To: <peregrineflier_at_npgcable.com>; <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 5:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] An Asteroid Headed Our Way (2004
> MN4 -99942Apophis)
>
>
>> Hi, all,
>>
>> Hi, Tom,
>>
>> I thought this was tongue-in-cheek, but your second post indicates it's
> not!
>>
>> >"Mother nature knows what she's doing, let her do her thing!"<
>>
>> Do you really believe "mother nature" is a calculating, sentient,
> deity-like
>> existence in control of all things in the universe?
>> Or would the comet/asteroid be doing the thinking?
>>
>> Also, your belief about the origin of AIDS is urban legend - you need a
> new
>> source for information.
>>
>> Beam me outta here!
>> Regards,
>> Pete
>> (You were kidding, right?)
>>
>>
>> From: "Tom Knudson" <peregrineflier_at_npgcable.com>
>> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] An Asteroid Headed Our Way (2004 MN4
>> -99942Apophis)
>> Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 16:27:01 -0700
>>
>> Hi List,
>> I have to ask, is it right to mess with "mother nature"? From the
> beginning
>> of time cosmic events have been part of nature. If "mother nature"
> thinks
>> it's time for mankind to end, then do we have the right to stop it?
>> Natural disasters are part of life, we will never stop earthquakes,
>> tornados, tidal waves, hurricanes or volcano's, because we can not,
>> should
>> we stop asteroids just because we can? I say, let nature take it's
>> coarse!
>> : ) Heck, if it were not for asteroids, we would be watching out for
>> T-rex's when ever we went out to the store for milk! Mother nature knows
>> what she's doing, let her do her thing! Any women right activists out
> there
>> to give an opinion on this?
>> Thanks, Tom
>> peregrineflier <><
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
>> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>> Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 4:05 PM
>> Subject: [meteorite-list] An Asteroid Headed Our Way (2004 MN4 -
>> 99942Apophis)
>>
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0726/p01s04-stss.html
>> >
>> > An asteroid, headed our way
>> > By Peter N. Spotts
>> > The Christian Science Monitor
>> > July 26, 2005
>> >
>> > Humans live in a vast solar system where 2,000 feet seems a razor-thin
>> > distance.
>> >
>> > Yet it's just wide enough to trigger concerns that an asteroid due to
>> > buzz Earth on April 13, 2029 may shift its orbit enough to return and
>> > strike the planet seven years later.
>> >
>> > The concern: Within the object's range of possible fly-by distances
>> lie
>> > a handful of gravitational "sweet spots," areas some 2,000 feet across
>> > that are also known as keyholes.
>> >
>> > The physics may sound complex, but the potential ramifications are
> plain
>> > enough. If the asteroid passes through the most probable keyhole, its
>> > new orbit would send it slamming into Earth in 2036. It's unclear to
>> > some experts whether ground-based observatories alone will be able to
>> > provide enough accurate information in time to mount a mission to
> divert
>> > the asteroid, if that becomes necessary.
>> >
>> > So NASA researchers have begun considering whether the US needs to tag
>> > the asteroid, known as 99942 Apophis, with a radio beacon before 2013.
>> >
>> > Timing is everything, astronomers say. If officials attempt to divert
>> > the asteroid before 2029, they need to nudge the space rock's position
>> > by roughly half a mile - something well within the range of existing
>> > technology. After 2029, they would need to shove the asteroid by a
>> > distance as least as large as Earth's diameter. That feat would tax
>> > humanity's current capabilities.
>> >
>> > NASA's review of the issue was triggered by a letter from the B612
>> > Foundation. The foundation's handful of specialists hope to
>> demonstrate
>> > controlled asteroid-diversion techniques by 2015.
>> >
>> > Last Wednesday, representatives from the foundation met with
>> colleagues
>> > at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to review the issue. The
>> > foundation's letter marks the first time specialists in the
>> > asteroid-hazard field have called for a scouting mission to assess
>> such
>> > a threat.
>> >
>> > "We understand the risk from this object, and while it's small, it's
> not
>> > zero," says David Morrison, the senior scientist at NASA's
>> Astrobiology
>> > Institute at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
>> >
>> > The call for a reconnaissance mission also illustrates how far the
> field
>> > of asteroid-hazard assessment has come.
>> >
>> > "Ten years ago, we would have been blissfully ignorant," says Donald
>> > Yeomans, who heads NASA's near-Earth object project at JPL. Today, at
>> > least five programs worldwide are hunting down near-Earth objects.
>> NASA
>> > is well on its way toward achieving its goal of cataloging 90 percent
> of
>> > the near-Earth objects larger than 0.6 miles across by 2008. And it is
>> > devising ways to ensure that information about potential hazards
> reaches
>> > top decisionmakers throughout the government.
>> >
>> > Based on available data, astronomers give Apophis - a 1,000-foot wide
>> > chunk of space debris - a 1-in-15,000 chance of a 2036 strike. Yet if
>> > the asteroid hits, they add, damage to infrastructure alone could
> exceed
>> > $400 billion. When the possibility of the asteroid passing through two
>> > other keyholes is taken into account, the combined chance of the
>> > asteroid hitting the planet shifts to 1 in 10,000, notes Clark
>> Chapman,
>> > a senior scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder,
>> Colo.
>> >
>> > "A frequent flier probably would not want to board an airliner if
>> > there's a 1-in-10,000 chance it's going to crash," he says.
>> >
>> > The asteroid in question was discovered last June. Initially, it
>> looked
>> > as though it might strike Earth in 2029. But additional observations
>> > eliminated that possibility. Instead the asteroid will come within
>> > 22,600 miles of Earth - just inside the altitude where major
>> > communications satellites orbit. The asteroid will be visible to the
>> > naked eye in the night skies over Europe and western Africa, where it
>> > will appear a bit dimmer than the North Star.
>> >
>> > But this estimated distance carries an uncertainty that spans several
>> > thousand miles either side of its expected path - a region of space
> that
>> > includes three gravitational keyholes.
>> >
>> > JPL's analysis will look at several factors. One involves estimating
>> > whether additional ground observations will be sufficient to resolve
> the
>> > question of whether the asteroid will pass through one of the
>> keyholes.
>> > The asteroid belongs to a class known as Atens, which orbit the sun in
>> > less than a year and pass through Earth's orbit. Because Atens spend
>> so
>> > much of their time in the direction of the Sun, observations from
>> Earth
>> > are difficult. After next year, the next opportunity to gather data on
>> > the asteroid from the ground will come in 2012-2013.
>> >
>> > In addition, questions remain over how long a tagging mission - and if
>> > necessary a deflection mission - would take to plan and execute. If
>> > missions can be mounted in six years or less, NASA could postpone a
>> > decision to tag the asteroid until 2014. This would give astronomers
>> > time to incorporate their latest observations as they refine
>> > calculations of Apophis's orbit. But if a tagging mission took seven
>> to
>> > eight years and a diversion mission took another 12 years, the case
>> > grows for launching the tagging mission sooner rather than later.
>> >
>> > Dr. Yeomans, the head of the near-Earth-object program at JPL, says
>> the
>> > next step is to examine whether additional ground-based observations
> are
>> > likely to solve the collision riddle in a timely fashion.
>> >
>> > "I can't stress this enough: The overwhelming most-likely scenario is
>> > that radar and optical data this year and next or in 2012 and 2013
>> will
>> > completely remove the impact probabilities," he says.
>> >
>> > "If this is the case, why are we worried now? If it's a 1-in-15,000
> shot
>> > and we come up a loser," there's still time to mount a tagging and a
>> > deflection mission, he says.
>> >
>> > ______________________________________________
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>> > Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
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>> >
>>
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Received on Mon 25 Jul 2005 09:15:07 PM PDT