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Small Asteroid Is Earth's Constant Companion

134 points| fforflo | 9 years ago |jpl.nasa.gov

43 comments

order
[+] avar|9 years ago|reply
How does this affect Earth's status as a planet? The asteroid seems to be sharing our orbit, and the IAU has decided that if you haven't cleared your orbit you're not a planet. That's how Pluto got disqualified.

Are we a dwarf planet now?

[+] DCKing|9 years ago|reply
'Clearing your orbit' is not a qualitative term. It is actually something that is quantifiable: a value that expresses the relation of the mass in the planet's orbit compared to the mass of the planet itself.

A tiny asteroid won't change that value much for Earth, which is more than comfortably a planet under this definition. The mass of this asteroid may not even affect the estimates of the mass of the regular space debris in our orbit even (haven't checked).

[+] tener|9 years ago|reply
It is just 100 meters across. A single nuke and we will be back to one moon.

Alternative scenario: cut it down to pieces, bring back to Earth - perhaps it is made of gold or better?

[+] tmptmp|9 years ago|reply
Or worse, like Andromeda Strain [1], full of dangerous viruses. Maybe we could sample it for viruses but can we test its full volume for viruses before bringing it on earth? But, it may lie dormant there and pass tests there, and once in Earth's climate, springs to life. In either way, gold or viruses, very thrilling.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain

[+] hirsin|9 years ago|reply
Perhaps a good test site for Planetary Resources, although it sounds like it may be too small. Can you call dibs on an asteroid?
[+] nxzero|9 years ago|reply
Or, strange idea, leave it be.
[+] BurningFrog|9 years ago|reply
Nuke it in orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
[+] skilled|9 years ago|reply
Your comment made me laugh, thank you.
[+] ChuckMcM|9 years ago|reply
Fun! So now to find the writeup for the KSP parameters for an intercept. It would be fascinating if it were an alien artifact, designed in such a way that you would have to reach a certain level of technology to actually see it, and then a bit further to go out and visit it. Leave a box on it with pictures for how to call the aliens to have a talk with them.

If nothing else it would be a fun story to write.

[+] colordrops|9 years ago|reply
> it would be a fun story to write

You mean 2001?

[+] skykooler|9 years ago|reply
So, now we have a sort of Minmus?
[+] barisser|9 years ago|reply
Too small to destroy the Earth, yet not big enough to act as a Space Prison... alas.
[+] noonespecial|9 years ago|reply
Just the right size to turn into our first starship?
[+] int0x80|9 years ago|reply
That's no Moon.
[+] bronson|9 years ago|reply
It's 1/2 the size of an aircraft carrier... Not much of a battle station either.
[+] broahmed|9 years ago|reply
Planetary Resources [1] (that asteroid mining company) might be interested in this bit of news. Hope it's minable!

[1] http://planetaryresources.com/

[+] abcd_f|9 years ago|reply
Unless it's made from stacks of crisp USD bills, I doubt they will be interested. Because that's what they seem to have been focused on mining to date.
[+] developer2|9 years ago|reply
I find that so disappointing. Of course there are people already planning to rip resources out of the cosmos. Once you've left Earth barren, of course it makes sense to spread our destructive tendencies throughout the solar system / galaxy.
[+] aclissold|9 years ago|reply
This is so romantic! Earth has a little friend that (at least on a human timescale) has always been there, always will be, no questions asked <3
[+] clort|9 years ago|reply
its only been there a hundred years, according to the article
[+] heroprotagonist|9 years ago|reply
If I were aliens attempting to subtley measure the progress of life on Earth, that's where I'd put my monitoring station.