Near Earth Objects 2012

This Near Earth Objects 2012 article defines Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), NASA's Near Earth Object Program and the Near Earth Objects for 2012. The NASA Near Earth Orbit Website is located at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html. It contains a wealth of information on the NEO [roject, NEO tracking, etc. Most of the information in this article is from that website. We have condensed it to what we believe most people are looking for on the subject.

The NASA site is updated daily and we recomend that you go there for more information about Near Earth Objects 2012.

Near Earth Objects 2012 – What are NEO's?

Near Earth Objects are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood. Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago. The giant outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed from an agglomeration of billions of comets and the left over bits and pieces from this formation process are the comets we see today. Likewise, today's asteroids are the bits and pieces left over from the initial agglomeration of the inner planets that include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the solar system formation process, comets and asteroids offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago. If we wish to know the composition of the primordial mixture from which the planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process – the comets and asteroids.

Near Earth Objects 2012 – What is NASA's NEO Program?

Keeping An Eye On Space Rocks!!!

The purpose of the Near-Earth Object Program is to coordinate NASA-sponsored efforts to detect, track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that could approach the Earth. The NEO Program will focus on the goal of locating at least 90 percent of the estimated 1,000 asteroids and comets that approach the Earth and are larger than 1 kilometer (about 2/3-mile) in diameter, by the end of the next decade. In addition to managing the detection and cataloging of Near-Earth objects, the NEO Program office will be responsible for facilitating communications between the astronomical community and the public should any potentially hazardous objects be discovered.

In terms of the discovery efforts for NEOs, NASA's current goal is to discover at least 90% of all NEOs whose diameters are larger than 1 kilometer within 10 years. To meet the NASA goal, the rate with which new objects are discovered will necessarily be largest in the first few years. This is because during the latter years of the 10-year interval, more and more "discoveries" will actually be of objects that have been previously found. Currently, the best estimate of the total population of NEOs larger than one kilometer is about 1000. The progress toward discovering 90% of this population can be monitored under the web page entitled ÒNumber of NEOsÓ within the section on Near-Earth Objects.

Near Earth Objects 2012 – "Close" Approaches for 2011

As you can see from this chart, there are many "Close approaches" being tracked for 2011. These charts just cover the first half of 2011.

BUT DON"T GET ALARMED. If you read the data closely you will see that out of all of these Near Earth Objects, only 1 is projected to get closer to earth then the moon.

Near Earth Objects 2012 – Assessing risk for 2012 and beyond.

Note that there is no doomsday asteroid or comet predicted for 2012 or any year that we know of.

357 NEAs: Last Updated Feb 28, 2011
Sort by Palermo Scale (cum.) or by Object Designation

Recently Observed Objects
(within past 60 days)

Impact Table Legend

OK thats it for this Near Earth Objects 2012 Article

Date

The calendar date (UTC) of the potential impact.
 

Distance

The minimum distance on the target plane (scaled b-plane) from the LOV to the geocenter, measured in Earth radii. For these purposes the radius of the Earth, 6420 km, includes some allowance for the thickness of the atmosphere.
 

Width

The one-sigma semi-width of the LOV uncertainty region, measured in Earth radii.
 

Sigma Impact

The lateral distance in sigmas from the LOV to the Earth's atmosphere. Zero indicates that the LOV intersects the Earth. It is computed from (Distance – 1)/Width.
 

Sigma LOV

The coordinate along the Line Of Variations (LOV). This value is a measure of how well the impacting orbit fits the available observations. Zero indicates the best-fitting, central (nominal) orbit and the further from zero, the less likely the event: Roughly 99% of all the uncertainty region lies between -3 and +3. Sentry explores out to Sigma LOV = +/-5.
 

Stretch LOV

The stretching is the semimajor axis of the local linear uncertainty region. It describes how fast one moves across the target plane as Sigma LOV changes, and is measured in Earth radii per sigma. The local probability density varies inversely with the stretching, and thus larger stretching values will generally lead to lower impact probabilities.
 

Impact Probability

The probability that the tabulated impact will occur. The probability computation is complex and depends on a number of assumptions that are difficult to verify. For these reasons the stated probability can easily be inaccurate by a factor of a few, and occasionally by a factor of ten or more.
 

Impact Energy

The kinetic energy at impact, based upon the computed absolute magnitude and impact velocity for the particular case, and computed in accordance with the guidelines stated for the Palermo Technical Scale. Uncertainty in this value is dominated by mass uncertainty and the stated value will generally be good to within a factor of three.
 

Palermo Scale

The hazard rating according to the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale, based on the tabulated impact date, impact probability and impact energy.
 

Torino Scale

The hazard rating according to the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, based on the tabulated impact probability and impact energy. The Torino Scale is defined only for potential impacts less than 100 years in the future.

 

OK thats it for this Near Earth Objects 2012 Article

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