Asteroids

[promethean]

Perhaps it will be close enough to capture...the Jan. Nat'l Geo has an item of interest
re: average precious metal value of an asteroid ...
One Ton of "average" Earth rock = $70
One Ton of "average" asteroid = $11,000 plus !
Platinum,Gold,Vanadium, etc.
Does not this indicate massive electrical events involving asteroids resulting in extraordinary
transmutation activity ? Did the same cause the parent body break-up ?
Or did ongoing energetic exchanges create the higher densities of heavy elements in individual asteroids ?

[wxman2001]

I believe there may be a discharge that disrupts or cripples a high orbiting earth satellite as DA 14 passes inside their orbits.

[webolife]

Promethean,
An asteroid's metals are valued because of their rarity, not abundance.

[promethean]

Promethean,
An asteroid's metals are valued because of their rarity, not abundance.

Exactly my point , webolife...if "rare" elements are found in "abundance" isn't that a clue
to the history of the body in question ?
Could the energy required for transmutations of precious metals be the cause of the "parent body's"
break-up?...I'm thinking "YES".

[Sparky]

Could I get an asteroid for my birthday?

[webolife]

What I meant, Prom, was just the opposite, ie. that the aquisition of metals from asteroids is an extremely rare phenomenon, thus their high value.

[webolife]

But, by the way, I'd also like one for my birthday, but not a very big one, and make sure it doesn't land in the Seattle area.

[GaryN]

New computer simulations reveal possible violent history of giant asteroid Vesta

Now, a research team made up of members from Switzerland, France and the United States has created 3D computer simulations of the asteroid that appear to explain how it came to be shaped as it is today. As the team describes in their paper published in the journal Nature, it appears Vesta was struck by two massive objects—one approximately 2 billion years ago, and another 1 billion years ago.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-simulation ... t.html#jCp

Sure glad they have it figured out, I've lost so much sleep over the years wondering how it could have formed, and now I know the answer, well, thank goodness for computer programmers and their simulations.

[seasmith]

Possible Seismic Activity on Asteroid 2012 DA14

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... oidquakes/

"As asteroids move through space, they slowly turn dark-red. This phenomenon, called 'space weathering', is caused by long exposure to cosmic rays and solar radiation. For decades, however, we have known about a handful of small asteroids that looked [light and fresh]; they were not space weathered."

How did this group of space rocks avoid space weathering? To solve the mystery, Binzel and colleagues calculated the asteroids' orbits and found a telling clue: They all had very close encounters with Earth in the past million years.
"We believe they were 'shaken up' by their encounters with Earth," he says. "Gravitational forces during the flybys can stretch, rattle, and torque these asteroids, causing dark, space-weathered material on the surface to be overturned, revealing the fresh stuff underneath."

So how will we know it 's a "gravitational" quake, and how will they know the difference between gravitic and electric forces ?

[GaryN]

Coincidence?

A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteor shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones stopped working.
According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite into pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-ural ... binsk-283/

[MattEU]

bbc have some good compilations of the russian meteor event http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21469677
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21468116

[Sparky]

A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite into pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

Doubt that... now iran's new stealth fighter may have shot it down...

[Corona]

Coincidence?

A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteor shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones stopped working.
According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite into pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-ural ... binsk-283/

according to NASA:

"The trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north."

www.spaceweather.com

[Corona]

Coincidence?

A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteor shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones stopped working.
According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite into pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-ural ... binsk-283/

according to NASA:

"The trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north."

http://www.spaceweather.com

[nick c]

Coincidence? That is hard to swallow.
Perhaps 2012 DA14 had some accompanying debris and one of these pieces did a partial orbit of the Earth before entering the upper atmosphere from the opposite direction of the motion of 2012 DA14.