BOTH ARE DANGER User ID: 1506951 India 08/16/2011 02:15 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Comet Elenin and asteroid 2005 YU55 [ link to spaceobs.org] I have received many questions as to whether these two objects may collide, or whether they might come so close to one another that they can change their orbits to head directly for Earth. Categorically – NO. Minimum distance between the two objects will happen September 13 (three days after the comet passes perihelion), and that distance is 0.1688 a.u., on the order of 25,252,000 km – 10 million km less than the distance of closest approach of Comet Elenin to our planet, which will take place October 16. As you know, May 21 was the closest approach of Comet C/2010 X1 to asteroid 1999 RQ176; the objects passed all of 225,830 km from each other, more than 100 times closer than the minimum distance between Comet Elenin and asteroid 2005 YU55! After that encounter, new position measuments of the comet and asteroid 1999 RQ176 were obtained. On such a short timescale no influence was noted, which means it is practically nil. For that reason, we can absolutely precisely say that Comet Elenin and asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass by one another and it will not even be noticeable! |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1480191 Canada 08/16/2011 02:37 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Comet Elenin and asteroid 2005 YU55 I noticed they have removed 2005 yu55 from the orbit diagrams. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1480191 Canada 08/16/2011 02:38 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Comet Elenin and asteroid 2005 YU55 JPL Small-Body Database Browser Search: [ help ] Error Condition
* No Matching Record: search string = "2005 yu55" * If you've entered an object designation, please make sure you've capitalized appropriately as designations are case-sensitive. For example, use "1999 AN10" instead of "1999 an10". Names are not case-sensitive. * It is possible you've requested a newly discovered asteroid which hasn't been added to our database yet. For new objects, please check back later. * More help, tips, and tricks are available via the help link. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1280588 United States 08/16/2011 03:02 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Comet Elenin and asteroid 2005 YU55
exactly. they are harmless in and of themselves but given the time frame and the fact that yu55 will be crossing elenins tail and could possibly be knocked off its original orbit is scary as hell |