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Post by Wes on Jan 29, 2010 23:40:58 GMT 10
WISE spots its first near-Earth asteroid.PASADENA, Calif. (UPI) -- NASA says its wide-field infrared survey explorer, called WISE, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth asteroid. Officials said the object is the first of hundreds WISE is expected to find during its mission to map the whole sky in infrared light. The asteroid, discovered Jan. 12 and named 2010 AB78, is about 0.6 miles in diameter and located approximately 98 million miles from Earth. The spacecraft's discovery was confirmed with the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) visible-light telescope. "The asteroid … circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system," NASA said. "The object comes as close to the sun as Earth, but because of its tilted orbit, it is not thought to pass near our planet. This asteroid does not pose any foreseeable impact threat to Earth, but scientists will continue to monitor it." WISE began its all-sky survey Jan. 14 and NASA said it expects the space telescope to find about 100,000 previously undiscovered asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, as well as millions of new stars and galaxies. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the WISE mission. Copyright 2010 by United Press International
I wonder if this is the object we were looking at a few weeks ago? Remember it?
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Post by brillbilly on Jan 30, 2010 1:05:44 GMT 10
i like that picasso blue pic,i might buy a print of it
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Post by Wes on Jan 30, 2010 1:23:14 GMT 10
i like that picasso blue pic,i might buy a print of it Yeah did this in photoshop when we were trying to get a better idea of its shape.
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Post by concrete on Jan 30, 2010 2:46:52 GMT 10
I remember it. But I'm sure people were posting images of it before 12/01/10. And from public space observation programs. If true, i never actually thought these were updated as quick as they are. You got me scratching my head now. I'm gunna go all sleuth and try to find when I first saw this image. Cheers for messing up my Friday night. Edit. Credit to Slush on this one (does he ever show up here anymore?) www.disclose.tv/forum/invading-alien-fleet-detected-on-wwt-off-south-pole-region-t14599.htmlI must admit. The pics show up after the claimed discovery date. But, I didn't think they updated the sites that quick. Concretes case solved. Back to the beer.
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Post by concrete on Jan 30, 2010 2:59:24 GMT 10
Wait!!! It was discovered on the 12th. Yet the survey didn't start till the 14th?
Hmmm... Sleuth back on. But, this sleuth need a beer first.
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Post by theshee on Jan 30, 2010 5:19:48 GMT 10
Its only a matter of time before one of these monsters hits us.
Enjoy your beer concrete.
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Post by Wes Gear on Jan 30, 2010 12:12:04 GMT 10
very interesting stuff.
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Post by Wes on Jan 31, 2010 14:12:30 GMT 10
The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE -- an all-sky mapping infrared mission designed to see all sorts of cosmic objects. www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/wise20100122.htmlMaybe this is a different object as NASA is saying this object is red, while the other object was blue. But then NASA is well know for changing the color of its photos; example Mars. Or is it because this photo is in Infrared and that causes the object to appear red?
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Post by Wes Gear on Jan 31, 2010 14:24:02 GMT 10
yeah that is a false color pic wes. so was the blue one. they could be the same object just at different focal lengths.
the use infrared to look for objects heated to the extremes by our sun while the farther away objects will remain cool.
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Post by Wes on Jan 31, 2010 14:26:42 GMT 10
Thanks Drex, I was thinking that way but I wasn't sure.
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