Asteroid's Near Miss of Earth Undetected for 2 Days

techspot.com

9 points·indus··7 comments

* We're usually aware of any potentially hazardous space objects long before they get close to our planet.

* Asteroid 2023 NT1 was different, though, as it traveled toward us from the sun and thus was hidden by the star's glare.

* In an attempt to avoid future situations like these, the European Space Agency (ESA) has planned a project called NEOMIR. The mission will orbit between the Earth and Sun around the first Lagrange point (L1), giving the telescope a view of asteroids that may come toward the Earth from the direction of the Sun.

* Unfortunately, it's not set to launch until 2030.

Once that telescope is in place, can they tell exactly where the asteroid would hit Earth, or is it more like everybody on this hemisphere take cover?

Computer says yes:

https://gravitysimulator.org/

https://spaceengine.org/

Once the mass, velocity, heading of an object is known it becomes easier to track and fine tune parameters meaning time of intersect with earth can be calculated which gives orientation of planet and entry attitude.

An exact street addres | sub metre grid reference is a big ask, but the "line of breakup" arcing across a narrow slice of the planet is realistic.

reminds me of SENTINEL mission with same profile

even got into KSP, but real life was much harder

"Near Miss"; ie. near hit.

But that sounds scary, so we say "near miss". Or maybe they mean "it almost got us - it was near, but it missed!"

The dinosaurs didn't bother investing into a good space program with the ability to detect and divert asteroids, and look where their hubris and shortsightedness got them.

Maybe humans will do better, but I'm not so sure.

I thought we have situations like these covered. :/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com