Re: ZetaTalk and Spaceguard UK

Jonathan TATE <fr77@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
>> Deflection requires pushing it OUTSIDE of the current area
>> it is in,
>
> Agreed
>
>> as it is not, contrary to man's assumptions, trucking along on
>> its current trajectory simply because it was pointed in that
>> direction at some time in the past!
>
> Motion is constant unless a force acts to change it, so NEOs
> are trucking along on their current trajectories simply because
> they were pointed in that direction at some time in the past.
>
>> It's in an orbit, and STAYING there, for dozens of reasons,
>> and would return to that orbit unless removed from the area.
>
> Agreed, though "removed from the area" is a very vague term.
> Once an orbit has been changed it remains changed unless
> something else applies a force to change it again. See above.

    These objects have an orbit?  A path?  They REPEAT their
    patterns?  What is it they are ORBITING?  And you're saying
    they are moving in a straight line?  Give us a break!
        ZetaTalk™

  Earth-approaching Space Rock found by Accident
  BBC News, July 10, 2000
      A new member of the family of asteroids that can pass
      close to the Earth has been discovered. The space rock was
      found by accident on 2 July by astronomer Leonard Amburgey
      of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He typed in the wrong celestial
      co-ordinates into his computer-controlled telescope and
      stumbled across the 3-km (1.8 miles) sized object. The
      asteroid has been given the temporary designation 2000
      NM by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
      It poses no threat to Earth. Astronomers say this is the
      brightest near-Earth asteroid to be discovered in the past year.
      However, they are concerned that it was found by accident
      and was missed by the half dozen professional minor-planet
      surveys currently in operation. At the moment, it is about 22
      million km (13 million miles) from Earth. It crosses inside
      the Earth's orbit at the end of July, on its way to its closest
      approach to the Sun in late August.

  Asteroid gives Earth a Cosmic 'Close Shave'
  By Mark Henderson, The Times Newspapers Ltd., Sept. 5, 2000
      The Earth has had a cosmic near miss with an asteroid one
      third of a mile wide, leading to new calls for an international
      task force to devise ways of preventing a devastating impact.
      The 2000 QW7 asteroid, which originated in the belt between
      Mars and Jupiter, passed within 2.4 million miles of the Earth
      on Friday morning, astronomers said yesterday. It was detected
      at Cornell University's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, six
      days before it hurtled past the Earth. The asteroid was only
      twelve times further away than the moon when it reached the
      nearest point to earth on its orbit - a close shave in cosmic
      terms.