WOW That Was CLOSE!

Anyone feel like ducking Friday?  Why?  Well Wednesday astronomers got a bit of a nasty surprise.   Asteroid 2012 BX34  was spotted quite literally in our back door.  What's worse BX34 was going to get MUCH closer.  By Friday it was one fifth the distance to the Moon or 36,750 miles!  And yes sports fans, that is one of the closest approaches on record.  

In all fairness I ought to tell you the good news - BX34 will pass by, close, but a miss and it is small  - about 37 feet across.  Oh and it passed by at 10:30 est.  

YU 55 Due to Make Close Encounter

Space.com has an article on how to view Earth's newest close encounter with an asteroid. Object asteroid 2005 YU55, according to this NASA video, will make it's closest approach November 8 2011 and will come within 9/10s of the Moon's distance from Earth. Check out the NASA video and then hop over to Space.com for info on hopefully catching a glimpse of the object.

Space Traffic Control?

Any long time reader will know that I have, on many occasions, mentioned the growing problem of N.E.O. space junk. The near space around Earth is quite literally swamped with all manner of space junk, from dead or dying satellites to deadly nuts, bolts and paint chips. The problem is truly enormous. There are 4000 large bodies being tracked now. Add to that 6000 large tractable debris and upwards of 200,000 non tracked objects larger than 1 centimeter thought to be in orbit. All traveling in excess of 17 thousand mph. One of the worst happened in 2007 when China tested an anti-sat system that created a cloud of junk that is thought to be the worst every in the history of space flight. Now experts in the field are saying "it's time for a space traffic management system". In fact, that very system is now being explored. A recent meeting brought together hundreds of aerospace safety experts from America, Europe, Russia, and China. The object is to get the ball rolling on a Space Situational Awareness or SSA. Click the link below to read more about the problems that the group faces and the ultimate goals they hope to achieve.

<- SAA meeting ->

Thanks to Shaun Saunders for the post