Wednesday, May 29, 2013

More on the massive asteroid 1998 QE2 - it is estimated to weigh about 40 Billion tons


You may be able to see it through a telescope
Friday night, May 31 2013
QE2 is an Amor class asteroid, that is one whose orbit approaches but does not cross the Earth’s orbit, and whose orbit is further from the Sun than Earth's orbit. It goes round the Sun once every 3 years and 9 months. At it’s farthest from the Sun, it goes well beyond the orbit of Mars.
The good news is that “anyone with a telescope” could hope to have some chance of sighting it in the constellation Libra. See my previous posting in this blog for information on a public viewing through a cyber-telescope with commentary.
Srinivasan Ramani

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Massive asteroid 1998 QE2 will make a close pass on May 31 2013


The huge asteroid 1998 QE2 will pass close to the earth on May 31, 2013 (or on June 1, depending on where you live). It will pass the earth at a distance of about 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon. We should be happy that it will not come any closer. It is big enough to ensure that any collision between QE2 and the earth would be catastrophic for most life on earth. I was unable to locate a mass estimate for the asteroid on the web; but we know it is about 2.7 KM along one dimension. Visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-163  for more information.

Those interested can sign up for a free event over the Web including commentary by staff of the Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 (it will be at about 2 AM on the morning of June 1, 2013 in Bangalore) Visit http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2013/05/18/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-285263-1998-qe2-close-encounter-online-event-31-may-2013/

http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/events/  provides information on the Virtual Telescope Project 2.0

Visibility: I was personally surprised to learn that such a huge rock passing us at a distance of 5.8 million KM will not be visible even to those who use a pair of binoculars. The fact that its surface is covered by some black substance may partly explain this.


Measuring the Asteroid's Mass: Let me ask my friends in physics research: do you think you can rig up a way of measuring the gravitational effect of such a mass passing at that distance? That is, can you measure a change of about ten parts in a million in gravitational acceleration in your lab? What would be the extent of low frequency gravitational noise in your lab?



Srinivasan Ramani