This is an animation of all asteroid discoveries from 1980-2010. I highly recommend watching this in as high a resolution as possible. Also there is no sound.
Asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit are Red, approach within 1.3 AU (which seems high) are yellow. Everything else is green.
It's pretty interesting to catch a red dot out by Jupiter and go "how is that going to cross?" then it just comes rocketing across our orbit.
@Log1c: I love this! It's like a great suspense thriller. At first, I'm left with the impession that we're basically being cornholed by the solar system. 2012 seemed a lot more plausible for a second or three.
After a frantic moment of panic-gone-skepticism when the video was over, it occurred to me that our means of detecting these types of asteroidal objects has drastically improved over the thirty-year spread represented in the video. So, while it would appear that in recent years there's been a dramatic increase in proximal asteroidal density, it stands to reason that they have always been, basically, that dense and that we've only lately been able to see what's right out there.
This is an animation of all asteroid discoveries from 1980-2010. I highly recommend watching this in as high a resolution as possible. Also there is no sound.
Asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit are Red, approach within 1.3 AU (which seems high) are yellow. Everything else is green.
It's pretty interesting to catch a red dot out by Jupiter and go "how is that going to cross?" then it just comes rocketing across our orbit.
Watch until the end, (we're so fucked!).
#observationdeck #tips #science (Edit comment)
#observationdeck (Edit comment)
After a frantic moment of panic-gone-skepticism when the video was over, it occurred to me that our means of detecting these types of asteroidal objects has drastically improved over the thirty-year spread represented in the video. So, while it would appear that in recent years there's been a dramatic increase in proximal asteroidal density, it stands to reason that they have always been, basically, that dense and that we've only lately been able to see what's right out there.
#science (Edit comment)
#observationdeck (Edit comment)
Actually, we really should. The people who would be freaked out are too stupid to know any better.
...this might work.
#observationdeck (Edit comment)
#observationdeck (Edit comment)
#science (Edit comment)
User action
Thread action