{"id":7526,"date":"2005-02-14T14:11:44","date_gmt":"2005-02-14T21:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/02\/14\/party-like-its-2029.html"},"modified":"2005-02-14T14:11:44","modified_gmt":"2005-02-14T21:11:44","slug":"party_like_its","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/14\/party_like_its.html","title":{"rendered":"Party like it’s 2029"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know they say it won’t hit, and I know that orbital mechanics make such things, well, mechanically predictable.<\/p>\n

Still, pardon me if I flinch at that bullet whizzing by my ear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The asteroid is roughly estimated to be a little more than 1,000 feet (320 meters) wide. The rock, catalogued as 2004 MN4, was discovered last June. It was seen again in December, and for a time scientists said it had the highest odds of hitting Earth ever given to a space rock. Subsequent observations refined the future path and eliminated those odds for the 2029 flyby. It won’t hit the Moon, either.<\/p>\n

[…] On April 13, 2029, it will be about 22,600 miles (36,350 kilometers) from Earth’s center. That is just below the altitude of geosynchronous satellites, which hover in fixed perches above the planet to communicate with and collect data on half the globe at all times.<\/p>\n

Of the ten known closest asteroid flybys, 2004 MN4 is by far the largest object, said Steve Chesley of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Only two have come closer, and they were only tens of yards (meters) wide.<\/p>\n

It will be the only asteroid ever clearly visible to the naked eye:<\/p>\n

The asteroid 2004 MN4 is expected to shine like a fast-moving star at magnitude 3.3, Chesley said. That would be easily visible under dark skies without the help of binoculars or telescopes.<\/p>\n

By comparison, Ceres, the largest “regular” asteroid is magnitude<\/a> 7.6, less than 1\/50th MN4’s.<\/p>\n

We do have a quarter century or so until it happens, though, so don’t bother to mark your calendars — I suspect it will be in the news around that time.<\/p>\n

(via the Flea<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know they say it won’t hit, and I know that orbital mechanics make such things, well, mechanically predictable. Still, pardon me if I flinch at that bullet whizzing by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2001,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/27\/you_heard_it_he.html","url_meta":{"origin":7526,"position":0},"title":"You heard it here first","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-Mar-02 8:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to Long Bets, where folks with nerds with lots of cash place sizeable bets (minimum of $1K) on technology events at least two years out. Both bettors need to...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27254,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/26\/if-youre-going-to-be-racist-try-not-to-be-overtly-stoopid.html","url_meta":{"origin":7526,"position":1},"title":"If you're going to be racist, try not to be overtly STOOPID","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Mar-12 1:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Really. You just make other racists look bad worse. #ddtb Embedded Link 10 Racist \"Hunger Games\" Fans Who Failed Reading Comprehension 10 Racist \"Hunger Games\" Fans Who Failed Reading Comprehension: May the odds of getting hit by an ice cream truck be ever in...","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39757,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/18\/odds-are.html","url_meta":{"origin":7526,"position":2},"title":"Odds Are","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Nov-13 5:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I need to watch this about twenty times to pick up all the stuff in the chyron, the crawl, the background, the foreground ...Reshared post from +Doyce TestermanBarenaked Ladies.I love these guys, so much. View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43791,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/23\/odds-against-you-need-help-watch-the-equalizer.html","url_meta":{"origin":7526,"position":3},"title":""Odds Against You? Need Help? Watch 'The Equalizer'"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Jul-14 6:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Early birthday gift? Or best early birthday gift?Per\u00a0http:\/\/www.tvshowsondvd.com\/news\/Equalizer-Complete-Collection\/20090, Season 2 of Edward Woodward's classic 80s crime\/spy\/vigilante series, \"The Equalizer,\" comes out 26 August (currently at $28 on Amazon). \u00a0The other two seasons should come out in short order, as there's a special all-seasons set available from the publisher for $100\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1205,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/30\/what_me_worry.html","url_meta":{"origin":7526,"position":4},"title":"What, Me, Worry?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Sep-01 4:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Later this week, I am flying off on business. And two weeks later, another flight. I do not know how many people I've heard at my office say something like,...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19817,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/11\/o-wad-some-pow%e2%80%99r-the-giftie-gie-us.html","url_meta":{"origin":7526,"position":5},"title":"O wad some Pow\u2019r the giftie gie us …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Jan-11 1:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have it on good authority (on the Internet, so it must be true!) that I am ... \"Another lefty, railing on a topic he does not understand.\" Clearly the type that there are high odds against \"any comments that contradict his point of view actually getting past moderation.\" Someone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}