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> The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, discoverer of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, C
by flandish 4y ago
> The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, discoverer of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday, Jan. 21.
Discovered 5 days before its closest approach.
It’s amazing how much “stuff” is out there to learn, and how something can sneak in so “close”.
- turminal 4y agoSometimes they are only discovered after the closest approach. It depends a lot on where they're coming from relative to the sun.
- throwaway290 4y agoDamn. I almost wish I didn't know this.
- throwaway4aday 4y agoImagine standing in a field on a moonless night while someone shines a flashlight at you from one direction. You are told you are surrounded by a number of people whom you can't see and that they will now proceed to throw rocks at you ranging in size from pebbles to bricks. That's roughly the level of anxiety you should have about our current situation.
- jeffbee 4y agoWouldn't they be throwing the rocks at the flashlight guy?
- generalizations 4y agoFlashlight guy is the sun blinding you so you can't see anything.
- throwaway4aday 4y agoNo, they're stand-ins for the trajectory on closest approach to Earth. They're not trying to get the rocks to orbit flashlight guy.
- TheCapn 4y agoWell, to make the analogy work you'd be running circles around flashlight guy while they throw at him. Maybe you're in the crossfire, maybe not. But the other part that I think the original OP is sort of amazed at is that we're unable to detect these through some sort of automated system more accurately. It isn't fair to compare our space/vision capabilities to the eyesight of a person alone. Do we not have satellites or installations doing ""short range"" scanning with radio/laser/something-else-I-am-not-an-astronomer-don't-hate-me ? How come it was an amateur picking this up so close to the specific date?
- throwaway4aday 4y agoYou'll be horrified when you Google just how much of the sky we're able to observe at any one point using everything we've got online right now.
- flandish 4y agoI (op) was just amazed at how much is out there, how this shows what we have yet to even know, let alone “look out for” etc. Was a comment on scale nothing else.
- pixl97 4y ago>canning with radio/laser/something-else R-squared is not your friend. This would take a massive amount of energy.
- flandish 4y agoOh for sure. No anxiety at all. Just so NEAT that there is so much out there.