|
Post by rmc on Feb 21, 2013 3:12:38 GMT
It has been repeatedly stressed that the Meteor that fell over Russia had nothing to do with the bigger asteroid, 2012 DA14. The main point being that the two bodies were moving in different directions relative to one another.
If the assertion that they are UNrelated turns out to be incorrect for whatever reason, could it be that discovering large Earth-passing bodies might involve the existence of other, smaller (but still threatening) unseen masses? That this sort of thing is actually fairly routine?
Because it is also known that Asteroids occasionally break up and then hang together in loosely organized packs (Albeit packs that generally move in the same direction, usually).
The question is could such packs pick up new directions when they've come within influence of Earth's gravity? In other words, could the smaller of these two have reached us the month before, (unseen), hooked around and then came at us from a different direction than it's partner-object? (reaching us first because it had drifted that far out ahead of the other object)
Anyway, to the point:
We've tracked another Asteroid inbound by around 2029 (Apophis). Could this one surprise us with others that we cannot see as well?
|
|
|
Post by WhutScreenName on Feb 21, 2013 21:42:16 GMT
For argument sake, lets say your hypothesis is correct, the meteor had been a part of the asteroid, but broke off and as part of that break somehow gained momentum and circled the earth only to hit at the same general time from another direction.
If that were the case, it would be more concerning that while we already had our eyes trained to the skies, we still missed the meteor. It's been said that it was big enough that it should have been detected, yet wasn't. How did we miss something like that when we were already looking because of the asteroid? Was it that we were too focused and just missed it? Or (and this will feed the CT's) was it actually noticed and not told to the public because nothing could be done to stop it?
|
|
|
Post by srmarti on Feb 21, 2013 22:51:08 GMT
It was a thwarted alien attack.
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Feb 22, 2013 1:31:17 GMT
Meteor Swarm
Sounds like something you need a giant fly swatter to defend against.
|
|
|
Post by WhutScreenName on Feb 27, 2013 13:56:12 GMT
|
|
|
Post by rmc on Feb 27, 2013 15:27:55 GMT
It must be very, very hard to see the 45 footers then.
It was around three times smaller in diameter then 2012 DA14 and had been hanging around us for a time from the article you've found, and yet it looks like we couldn't easily account for it until it blew up in the atmosphere.
I guess 'they' are cataloging the ones large enough to definitely impact the ground, for now. That makes sense, I suppose. Get the ones that are thought to definitely take out a city or more.
These 'little' ones will have to wait to be cataloged, it looks like? Or, DA14 was just big enough to be seen by chance, and, for now, we have little hope of finding those smaller ones because we just can't see them - even if they've made close passes for years?
|
|