Revelations 8

Russia Gets Hit By Meteorite. Is This a Piece of Asteroid 2012 DA14 Coming to the Sky Near You Today?

• Moment meteorite exploded in the sky above Russian town as doctors treat 950 people injured when sonic boom shattered windows


• Large object flashed across the sky at 9.20am local time 
• Pictures show a streak of smoke followed by several bright blasts of flames
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• 82 of the injured are children and two are in intensive care
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• Landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a neighbouring town 
• 6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory collapsed 
• One local said it 'was like a scene from the Armageddon movie'
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• Same day as Asteroid 2012 DA14, which is due to skim Earth's orbit tonight




• The city of Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow and close to the Kazakhstan border, took the brunt of the super sonic impact.







Spectacular sky: The Urals region was struck by falling meteorite fragments which fell in the city of Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow and close to the Kazakhstan border







• Tim O'Brien, associate director of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, said the injuries were caused when the meteor created a sonic boom.   'This reasonably large chunk of rock was moving faster than the speed of sound, maybe 20,000 miles per hour. It made a sonic boom in the atmosphere, and that hit buildings and shattered windows. That is what seems to have caused the injuries,' he explained. 


• A six metre wide hole was found in the ground close to Lake Chebarkul, said Russian military sources cited by RIA Novosti news agency. 


• Earlier it was thought the main body of the meteorite had hit the lake.  'The meteorite that passed over the Chelyabinsk region fell into a body of water 1km from the city of Chebarkul,' said a statement posted on the website of Chelyabinsk governor, Mikhail Yurevich.


• According to an unconfirmed report in Russia Today, the meteorite was intercepted by Russian air defense.


• The strike came on the same day that Asteroid 2012 DA14 is due to skim the orbit of the Earth tonight.  But astronomers say that it is probably just a coincidence -  Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society told MailOnline: 'As I understand it, the Russian meteorite(s) were travelling from east to west whereas 2012 DA14 will be travelling from north to south.'


• Pictures show a streak of smoke followed by several bright blasts of flames and eyewitnesses spoke of several devastating explosions.


• Mobile phones are only working intermittently and there were localised power cuts.


• According to RT.com, the Urals regional centre of the Emergency Ministry claimed it sent out a mass text message warning residents about a possible meteorite shower.  But eyewitnesses said they either never received it, or got the message after the explosion had already occurred.


Fear: First reports suggested that there had been a plane crash but officials confirmed it was one or more meteorites falling to Earth


Wounded: This woman suffered cuts across her face when the sonic boom of the meteor sent broken glass flying



The emergencies ministry said that 10,000 rescue workers had been dispatched to help the injured and locate those needing help.




• All schools and kindergartens were closed in Chelyabinsk region today.

Damaged: A zinc factory in Chelyabinsk was seen with a partially collapsed roof and walls in the morning after meteor pieces rained on the town

Moment of impact: A pair, seen on CCTV, cower from the impact as the window near them explodes

• The Russian Academy of Sciences is estimating the meteor weighed about 10 tons. 

• The academy said in a statement hours fall that the meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph) and shattered about 30-50 kilometres (18-32 miles) above ground.

• One eyewitness Gulnara Dudka, in her 20s, gave a dramatic account of the meteorite, telling how she feared 'doomsday' had arrived, reported the Siberian Times.

• Residents in one 19 storey block reported feeling the shockwaves of the explosions.

• The sounds of car alarms and breaking windows could be heard in the area, said a witness, and there were reports that the internet and mobile networks were temporarily down.

• The meteorite flew across the Russian sky from the direction of Kazakhstan, its trajectory going over southern Siberia, above the Tyumen, Kurgan and Sverdlovsk regions, said the head of the Urals regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry press service, Vadim Grebennikov.

• Officials stressed that radiation levels remained normal amid fears that one of dozens of nuclear facilities in the region could have been hit. 

Ruined: The sounds of car alarms and breaking windows could be heard in the area, said a witness, and there were reports that the internet and mobile networks were temporarily down

• Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist leader noted for vehement statements, said 'It's not meteors falling, it's the test of a new weapon by the Americans,' the RIA Novosti news agency reported. 'At the moment we are checking the territories and counting how many towns and settlements suffered from it.  'Preliminary information says the meteorite did not fall down but exploded in the air. '

Destroyed: The building of the local zinc plant badly damaged by a shockwave from a meteorite impact

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279020/Russian-meteorite-Moment-meteorite-exploded-doctors-treat-500-people-injured.html#ixzz2KzNUsU5a
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• The site of Friday's spectacular show is about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) west of Tunguska, which 1908 was the site of the largest recorded explosion of a space object plunging to Earth. That blast, attributed to a comet or asteroid fragment, is generally estimated to have been about 10 megatons; it leveled some 80 million trees.

• Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the incident showed the need for leading world powers to develop a system to intercept objects falling from space.  "At the moment, neither we nor the Americans have such technologies" to shoot down meteors or asteroids, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

• Small pieces of space debris — usually parts of comets or asteroids — that are on a collision course with the Earth are called meteoroids. They become meteors when they enter the Earth'satmosphere. Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, but if they survive the frictional heating and strike the surface of the Earth they are called meteorites.  Meteors typically cause sizeable sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are traveling much faster than the speed of sound. Injuries on the scale reported Friday, however, are extraordinarily rare.

read more at http://www.newsday.com/news/world/russian-meteor-shower-causes-blasts-injures-hundreds-1.4652395

for the following video... Published on Feb 15, 2013 Multiple meteors touched down in Central Russia in Ural region February 15th. These meteors caused injury from shattered windows, and broken class. It is believed these meteors broke off from the larger meteor 2012-Da14, which missed the earth by less than 30,000 miles the same day. Had Da-14 stuck earth, it would have destroyed everything within a 10 mile radius much like a nuclear bomb. In this video we see a building getting damaged.
for the following video... At 7:17 AM on the morning of June 30, 1908, a mysterious explosion occurred in the skies over Siberia. It was caused by the impact and breakup of a large meteorite, at an altitude roughly six kilometers in the atmosphere. Realistic pictures of the event are unavailable. However, Russian scientists collected eyewitness accounts of the event. I believe that we now know enough about large impacts to "decode" the subjective descriptions of the witnesses and create realistic views of this historic asteroid impact as seen from different distances.

Russia is no stranger to this type of event. A huge event happened in 1908 called the Tunguska Event.

Near Earth Asteroid, 85 Foot 2012 KP24 Passing Approx. 1/5th The Distance To The Moon

UPDATE: 5/29/2012
HERE IS THE INFORMATION I COULD PULL FROM THIS INTERNET TODAY TO UPDATE YOU ON THE 6TH CLOSEST NEAR EARTH OBJECT THAT HAS EVER BEEN RECORDED...


SMALL ASTEROID BUZZES EARTH: Newly-discovered asteroid 2012 KT42 is flying past Earth today (May 29th) only ~14,000 km above the planet's surface. This means 2012 KT42 will actually fly inside the Clark Belt of geosynchronous satellites. The 3- to 10-meter wide asteroid ranks # 6 on the top 20 list of closest-approachers to Earth. According to the asteroid's orbit, there is no danger of a collision. Even if it did hit, this space rock is too small to cause significant damage. It would likely disintegrate almost entirely in the atmosphere, peppering the ground below with relatively small meteorites. Flyby images: #1, #2.
source: spaceweather.com

2012 KT42 - Close Approach

May 29, 2012 at about 07:07 UT, the asteroid designated2012 KT42 will pass only ~14,000 km (8,700 miles) or about ~0.05 lunar distance (or 0.0001379 AU) above the Earth's surface. The asteroid was discovered by A. R. Gibbs in the course of Mt. Lemmon Survey with a 1.5-m reflector + CCD on May 28, 2012 at magnitude ~18.1.

According to its absolute magnitude (H=28.8) this asteroid has an estimated size of roughly 3-10 meters, so it is a small object. We have been able to follow-up this object soon after his discovery while it was still on the neocp, from the Siding Spring-Faulkes Telescope South on 2012, May 28.4, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD.

At the moment of our images from FTS, "2012 KT42" was moving at about ~3.63 "/min and its magnitude was ~17.5. At the moment of its close approach around 07UT of tomorrow, 2012 KT42 will be bright as magnitude ~12.0 and moving at ~11021"/min.

Below you can see an image (stack of 5x5-second exposures) showing the asteroid. Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version:

Below you can see an animation showing the motion of 2012 KT42. Each frame is a 5-second exposure through the FTS 2.0-m telescope. Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version:

While there is no cause for concern, this is one of the closest approaches recorded. The table below shows the top 20 closest approaches by NEOs (Near-Earth Objects) sorted by nominal distance. The table has been computed on the NASA/Neo-JPL website. 2012 KT42 is the sixth closer approach to date. (2011 CQ1 is the closest non-impacting object in the asteroid catalog to date. The event that took 2008 TC3 into the earth's atmosphere is not included). Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version:

On mpml mailing list, Andrew Lowe pointed out that on May 29 at about 10:10 UT,  2012 KT42 the minimum geocentric elongation from the center of the sun will be 0.1 degrees, so given the parallax there will be a transit across the sun. But with a diameter of about 5m, the object could be only about 0.07" across against the solar disk. Aldo Vitagliano provided this map of the transit (computed by his software Solex). Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version:

According to calculation made by P. Tricarico, 2012 KT42 has experienced a partial eclipse while approaching Earth on May 28, 2012 between 14:05 UTC and 21:45 UTC, before the flyby. See animation below (click on it for a bigger version). Probably the first case ever of an approaching asteroid experiencing an eclipse and a transit during the same flyby with Earth. More info about this on Tricarico's website.

by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Giovanni Sostero 
source: http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2012/05/2012-kt42-close-approach.html


29 MAY, 2012, 12.59PM IST, PTI 

2012 KT42, a newly found asteroid buzzes past Earth

NEW DELHI: A newly-discovered asteroid passed in close proximity to the Earth, just 14,000 km above the planet's surface, today but caused no damage to the orbiting communication satellites. 

The asteroid " 2012 KT42," which entered the Clark Belt of geosynchronous satellites, passed by Earth at around 1230 hours, S N Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society of India told PTI. 

The 3 to 10-metre wide asteroid ranks in the list of top ten of closest asteroid approaches to Earth. In fact, this is the sixth closest approach till date, which makes it significant despite its small size. 

The asteroid was not visible to the unaided eye. According to the asteroid's orbit, there was no danger of a collision. Even if it did hit, the space rock is too small to cause significant damage. It would have possibly disintegrated almost entirely in the atmosphere, peppering the ground below with relatively small meteorites, Kumar said. 

Asteroids are a class of solar system bodies in the orbit around the sun. The larger asteroids are been called planetoids.
source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/2012-kt42-a-newly-found-asteroid-buzzes-past-earth/articleshow/13634407.cms


-----------------------------------------end update-------------------------------------------------------


Yes, another asteroid, another near earth object.  This one is approximately 85 feet large and will come within an estimated 40389 mile distance to Earth.   Therefore, this object will come between the Earth and the Moon, between which the distance is 238,900 miles.  This means, the large object will be really close to Earth.  Here is the information that I scoured from the Internet on the subject.  I cannot vouch for all of the validity because of it coming from the Internet.  However, be aware that the magnetic pull during the next few days may cause further and larger earthquake activity, as well as volcanic activity.  This object is code condition 8, which means UNCERTAIN.  This was found only yesterday and observed since then.  Therefore, there is not much data on this body.  According to what I can pull from the Internet, the approximate day of closest passing will be between May 28-29, 2012.  


Object Information:
The Newly Discovered Asteroid 2012 KP24, other NEOs & Night Sky
2012 KP24 JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2012%20KP24;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=1#cad
2012 KP24 MPC: http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=2012+KP24&am...
NEO Earth Close Approaches: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/
HORIZONS: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi
Purdue University, Impact Earth: http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/

Asteroid 2012 KP24 0.1 LD 26 M Close to Earth on 29 May 2012 alignment of earth venus sun mercury mars gravitational pull earthquakes tsunami hurricanes earth distance 0.0024 AU sun distance 1.012 AU

Asteroid 2012 KP24 on 29 May 2012 aligns earth venus sun mercury mars gravitational pull earthquakes tsunami hurricanes earth distance 0.0024 AU sun distance 1.012 AU

Asteroid 2012 KP24 0.1 LD 26 M Close to Earth on 29 May 2012 alignment of earth venus sun mercury mars gravitational pull earthquakes tsunami hurricanes earth distance 0.0024 AU sun distance 1.012 AU

the idea girl says

it may not be a true alignment but to the eye it sure looks like one in this graph..

NOT GOOD!

it’s bad enough having Cuno 4183 asTEROID 7.8 km CLOSE TO EARTH AND THEN OVER 1293 OTHER’S KICKING CLOSE TO EARTH, DID YOU NOTICE THE NUMBERS WHEN UP FOR THAT TOO?

source: ClickHere

Newly Discovered Near Earth Asteroid 2012 KT12 Coming May 23, 2012

On May 23, 2012 there were 1293 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid	Date(UT)	Miss Distance	Mag.	Size
2012 KA	May 17	0.6 LD	--	9 m
2010 KK37	May 19	2.3 LD	--	31 m
4183 Cuno	May 20	47.4 LD	--	5.7 km
2012 KW	May 21	3.4 LD	--	19 m
2012 JV11	May 22	6.7 LD	--	68 m
2012 KT12	May 23	1.4 LD	--	25 m
2002 VX94	May 26	72.8 LD	--	1.1 km
2002 AC	Jun 16	62.2 LD	--	1.2 km
1999 BJ8	Jun 16	68.8 LD	--	1.1 km
2005 GO21	Jun 21	17.1 LD	--	2.2 km
2003 KU2	Jul 15	40.2 LD	--	1.2 km
2004 EW9	Jul 16	46.8 LD	--	2.1 km
2002 AM31	Jul 22	13.7 LD	--	1.0 km

Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.


source: http://spaceweather.com/
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Newly discovered 2012 KT12 is a small 15-35 meter Apollo class near-Earth asteroid which will fly 0.0037 AU or 1.4 LD to both Earth and Moon on May 23. JPL Orbit: [link to ssd.jpl.nasa.gov]  

Condition Code or orbit uncertainty estimate is a 8 on a scale of 0-9, with 0 being good, and 9 being highly uncertain. 

Was first spotted May 19 but just added to NASA site today, and not yet posted on SpaceWeather list [link to spaceweather.com] 

source: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1876893/pg1 
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For the following video poster:

Phil Plait is an astronomer, author, and science advocate. His blog, Bad Astronomy, is hosted by Discover Magazine, and he writes about news and current issues facing science. A common topic is astronomical doomsday: ways mythical and real the world can end. He's fascinated by asteroid and comet impacts, and is a big supporter of finding, tracking, and ultimately deflecting any dangerous rocks heading our way. 

About TEDx, x = independently organized event  

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

New Count of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

A New Count of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

May 16, 2012:  Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids. Also known as "PHAs," these asteroids have orbits that come within five million miles (about eight million kilometers) of Earth, and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

The asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, called NEOWISE, sampled 107 PHAs to make predictions about the population as a whole. Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been found.

In this simulated view of the near-Earth asteroid population, potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are denoted in orange. Less dangerous near-Earth asteroids are blue. Earth's orbit is green. [more]

While previous estimates of PHAs predicted similar numbers, they were rough approximations. NEOWISE has generated a more credible estimate of the objects' total numbers and sizes. Because the WISE space telescope detected the infrared light, or heat, of asteroids, it was able to pick up both light and dark objects, resulting in a more representative look at the entire population.

"The NEOWISE analysis shows us we've made a good start at finding those objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters. "But we've many more to find, and it will take a concerted effort during the next couple of decades to find all of them that could do serious damage or be a mission destination in the future."

This orbit diagram illustrates the difference between a PHA and less hazardous near-Earth asteroids (NEA). [more]

The new analysis suggests that about twice as many PHAs as previously thought reside in low-inclination orbits, which are roughly aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit.

"Our team was surprised to find the overabundance of low-inclination PHAs," said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Because they will tend to make more close approaches to Earth, these targets can provide the best opportunities for the next generation of human and robotic exploration."

The NEOWISE analysis suggests a possible origin for the low-inclinaton PHAs: Many of them could have originated from a collision between two asteroids in the main belt lying between Mars and Jupiter. A larger body with a low-inclination orbit may have broken up in the main belt, causing some of the fragments to drift into orbits closer to Earth and eventually become PHAs.

The lower-inclination PHAs appear to be somewhat brighter and smaller than other near-Earth asteroids. The discovery that PHAs tend to be bright says something about their composition; they are more likely to be either stony, like granite, or metallic. This type of information is important in assessing the space rocks' potential hazards to Earth. The composition of the bodies would affect how quickly they might burn up in our atmosphere if an encounter were to take place.

"The NEOWISE project, which wasn't originally planned as part of WISE, has turned out to be a huge bonus," said Mainzer.  "Everything we can learn about these objects helps us understand their origins and fate."

The NEOWISE results have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

SOURCE: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/16may_pha/

On May 17, 2012 there were 1287 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid	Date(UT)	Miss Distance	Mag.	Size
2012 JU	May 13	0.5 LD	--	10 m
2012 KA	May 17	0.6 LD	--	8 m
2010 KK37	May 19	2.3 LD	--	31 m
4183 Cuno	May 20	47.4 LD	--	5.7 km
2012 JV11	May 22	6.7 LD	--	69 m
2002 VX94	May 26	72.8 LD	--	1.1 km
2002 AC	Jun 16	62.2 LD	--	1.2 km
1999 BJ8	Jun 16	68.8 LD	--	1.1 km
2005 GO21	Jun 21	17.1 LD	--	2.2 km
2003 KU2	Jul 15	40.3 LD	--	1.3 km
2004 EW9	Jul 16	46.8 LD	--	2.1 km
2002 AM31	Jul 22	13.7 LD	--	1.0 km
37655 Illapa	Aug 12	37 LD	--	1.2 km

Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
SOURCE:http://spaceweather.com/