* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

Asteroid 2011 SO5

Date: Sep 28 01:06 2011

This NEO Asteroid 2011 SO5 has similar size to the one that created Arizona Meteor Crater, if it were to hit Earth it gouges a crater about 1 Km in diameter, but seems that it passes us by safely this time at a distance of 2.15 Million Km on 29 Sep 2011 at 17:55 UT

however it makes close ecounter with Mars too on 5 April 2012 too

Any one wants to know more about 2011 SO5 check out my Youtube channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/KurdstanPlanetarium#p/a/u/0/X3Ouw2dTy_I

Blobrana · L

@ricktgraham

It just means the orbit observations are not sufficiently precise. More observations will improve the accuracy of the orbital elements.

The 22 - 48 metre asteroid will barely make it through the atmosphere, if it were to impact the Earth.

ricktgraham · New

Why does JPL small body database list this as condition code 8?

Orbit Determination Parameters

# obs. used (total)	26
data-arc span	5 days
first obs. used	2011-09-18
last obs. used	2011-09-23
planetary ephem.	DE405
SB-pert. ephem.	SB405-CPV-2
condition code	8
fit RMS	.49646
data source	ORB
producer	Otto Matic
solution date	2011-Sep-24 00:50:24

8	A collision is certain, capable of causing localized destruction for an impact over land or possibly a tsunami if close offshore. Such events occur on average between once per 50 years and once per several 1000 years.

Blobrana · L

The 22 - 48 metre wide asteroid 2011 SO5 will make a close pass (5.6 lunar distances, 0.0143 AU), travelling at 12.08 km/second, to the Earth-Moon system on the 29th September, 2011 @ 17:55 UT ±01:09.

See more

The Lunar Distance (LD), the distance between Earth and the Moon, equals 384,401 km, (or 0.00256 AU).

Blobrana · L

Orbital elements:
2011 SO5                                                 Earth MOID = 0.0070 AU
Epoch 2011 Aug. 27.0 TT = JDT 2455800.5                 MPC
M 335.37549              (2000.0)            P               Q
n   0.33412064     Peri.  246.84443     +0.41879712     -0.90807874
a   2.0568400      Node   178.39486     +0.85039962     +0.39165305
e   0.6008862      Incl.    2.87209     +0.31847991     +0.14832695
P   2.95           H   25.4           G   0.15           U   9

MPEC 2011 - S13