New Moons

JGeropoulas

The Living Force
Laura’s recent article that comet cluster heading towards us (Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!) was an excellent “crash� course (no pun intended--but a good one!) for anyone unfamiliar with her earlier articles. For me, the stunning news was the tally of all the new “moons" that have accumulated around our neighboring planets in a progression towards Earth! Especially sobering is the fact that Jupiter began acquiring these new “moons" in the late ‘90’s, which means that all those “moons" which dodged Jupiter’s gravity are due to arrive at Earth any time now.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick search for recent “near misses" Here’s what I got with just a few minutes of effort. All bold is my emphasis.

Note the trend of the "near misses" getting "nearer" to Earth (d=DISTANCE TO OUR MOON):
January, 2002: 2.00d
March 8, 2002: 1.20d
June 14, 2002: .33d
August 17, 2002: 1.00d
Sept. 27, 2003: .25d
March 18, 2004: .10d

January, 2002
EARTH ESCAPES BRUSH WITH KILLER ASTEROID
Richard Stenger, CNN Sci-Tech

(CNN) -- An asteroid that could pulverize a country zipped close by the Earth in January, 2002, only weeks after astronomers first noticed the big space boulder heading in our direction. The Near Earth Object brightened enough for even simple telescopes to spot just before it raced past our planet on Monday, only 2 TIMES THE DISTANCE TO THE MOON. The range might seem like enough to breath easy, about 600,000 kilometres (375,000 miles), but many scientists classify it as a relatively close call.

The asteroid, officially known as 2001 YB5, measures between 300 and 400 meters (1,000 to 1,300 feet) in width. [Note, the size of the "Tunguska Object" that devastated nearly 800 square miles of Siberian forest on June 30, 1908 is estimated at about 100 meters.] If such a rock were to smash into the planet, it would unleash the same amount of energy as many nuclear bombs, astronomers estimate. "The impact would be quite tremendous. It could essentially wipe out a medium-sized country," said Benny Peiser of the Royal Astronomical Society in Great Britain. "The environmental consequences would be regional but the social and economic consequences would be global."

Close encounters with giant space rocks are not uncommon. "Asteroids comparable to 2001 YB5 could strike the Earth as frequently as once every 5,000 years," Peiser said.
March 8, 2002
WHEW! STEALTH ASTEROID NEARLY BLINDSIDES EARTH
Richard Stenger, CNN

(CNN) -- A sizable asteroid zipped near our planet on March 8, 2002 without anyone noticing because it traveled through an astronomical blind spot, scientists said. The space boulder passed Earth within 288,000 miles (461,000 kilometres) -- or 1.2 TIMES THE DISTANCE TO THE MOON but since it came from the direction of the sun, scientists did not observe it until four days later…was one of the 10 closest known asteroids to approach Earth, astronomers said.

"Asteroid 2002 EM7 took us by surprise. It is yet another reminder of the general impact hazard we face," said Benny Peiser, a European scientist who monitors the threat of Earth-asteroid collisions. "If it pierced the atmosphere, the approximately 70-meter-long rock, this object could have disintegrated and unleashed the energy equivalent of a 4-megaton nuclear bomb," researchers said.

"If it were over a populated area, like Atlanta, it would have basically flattened it, " said Gareth Williams, associate director of the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

"If one comes from the direction of the sun, we're not going to see it," Williams said. "Often these objects are outside of the Earth's orbit for a significant amount of time. "
June 14, 2002
COSMIC COLLISION UPDATES AND LINKS

On June 14, 2002, an asteroid the size of a football field came within 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometres of Earth -- less than 1/3rd THE DISTANCE TO THE MOON -- and we didn't know about it for three days. In an Associated Press story, near-Earth asteroid researcher Grant Stokes stated that an asteroid of that size "passes within a lunar distance of Earth" about once a week on the average, but most of them escape notice since the major projects searching for near-earth objects concentrate on larger bodies.

[Did you catch that?! An asteroid the size of the "Tunguska Object" that devastated nearly 800 square miles of Siberian forest in 1908 comes as close as our moon "about ONCE A WEEK ON AVERAGE"! I wonder if that average is from past decades or recent years? If from past decades, then the looming increases are all the more forboding.]
August 17, 2002
'NEAR MISS' ASTEROID WHIZZES PAST EARTH

Star gazers got their telescopes and binoculars ready over the weekend, trying to spot an asteroid which came closer to the Earth than any space rock of its size has in 77 years.The 800-metre-wide asteroid whizzed over North American skies August 17, 2002, missing the planet by about 530,000 kilometres (333,370 miles), SLIGHTLY MORE THAN THE DISTANCE TO THE MOON but still a "near miss" by astronomers' standards.

Star gazer David Roles said it was a moment he'll never forget. "Oh I'm really happy that we got a glimpse of it," he said. "Because it's not very often we see an object that close to the Earth." To put the asteroid's size into perspective, scientists described it as being roughly eight times the size of a regulation Canadian football field.

But looking at it from Earth through a telescope, it appeared to be nothing more than a shooting star.
September 27, 2003

CLOSEST ASTEROID YET FLIES PAST EARTH

An asteroid about the size of a small house passed just 88,000 kilometres (54,976 miles) from the Earth by on September 27, 2003 - the closest approach of a natural object ever recorded [1/4th THE DISTANCE TO THE MOON] . (Geostationary communication satellites circle the Earth 42,000 km from the planet's centre.)
March 18, 2004

Asteroid 2004 FH, about 30 metres (100 feet) in diameter, passed approximately [/b]43,000 kilometres (26,500 miles)[/b] above the Earth's surface (1/10th THE DISTANCE TO THE MOON). They estimated that similar sized asteroids come as close about every two years. Astronomers had detected it just three days before.
Also, I came across some interesting comments and statistics on the subject on this site

1.7 EARTH IMPACT BY AN ASTEROID: PROSPECTS AND EFFECTS

…the population of asteroids of the size of the Tunguska meteor or the Arizona impact probably exceeds 100,000 crossing Earth's orbit. But we know of precious few of these small asteroids because they are difficult to detect using today's telescopes until they are very close to us (and possibly just about to hit us!).

For a land impact, it can be said in general that an object of roughly 75 meters diameter can destroy a city, a 160 meter object can destroy a large urban area, a 350 meter object can destroy a small state, and a 700 meter object can destroy a small country.

It's not easy to determine the frequency of tsunamis in the world historically. Unusual debris has been found in high places in many parts of the world which could be the result of a tsunami, though it's not easy to determine what happened for sure and when, by the ordinary nature of the material. There has been little effort to date to systematically assess the frequency and nature of tsunamis well before the 20th century. Recorded history by civilizations along the Atlantic Ocean has not noted major tsunamis, though there wouldn’t be many people around to report it. There’s not much recorded history from many coastal regions in the world, and many long coastlines were devoid of cities.

A mainstream scientific analysis currently estimates that an asteroid-induced tsunami exceeding 100 meters in height along the entire coast probably occurs once every few thousand years, which slightly exceeds written history in most of these ocean coastal regions. We've been living on the edge for a long time now. Such a 100 meter tsunami would cause unprecedented damage to now-developed low lying areas all along the U.S. east coast, and may totally submerge vast areas in Europe such as in Holland and Denmark. A 100 meter tsunami would travel inland about 22 km (14 miles) and a 200 meter tsunami would travel inland about 55 km (34 miles) (Hills, 1994 paper ref.).
 
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Hi JG,
Signs also has an excellent archive of near misses and such. Beginning here:

http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs_meteor_supplement.htm

Peg
 
New evidence shows that Jupiter's moon Europa that is about the size of our moon is spouting water into space.

Most scientists have thought there was water on Europa, but they thought any liquid water would be below tons of ice. It seems though that there is a lot of water and it's spurting into space. This means that if we send a probe there we can collect the vapor and see if there are any microbes in it.

Very cool if you ask me!


131213071702-jupiter-moon-europa-water-vapor-horizontal-gallery.jpg
 
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Jupiter's Moons: 10 More Found, 79 Known - Sky & Telescope
By: Kelly Beatty | July 17, 2018
Jupiter’s Moons: 10 More Found, 79 Known
Over the past 18 months, astronomers have painstakingly tracked 10 tiny moons that they found circling the giant planet Jupiter.

After the discovery of Jupiter's four Galilean satellites in 1610, astronomers struggled to find 10 more in the 3½ centuries that followed. Today the IAU's Minor Planet Center announced that a search team led by Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Institution for Science) has identified 10 new moons of Jupiter, bringing the known total to 79 — the most of any planet in our solar system. Of those, Sheppard has led the searches that discovered 51 of them.

Dozens of Jupiter's moons circle the planet in a swarm of distant orbits and travel in a retrograde direction, that is, opposite that of the planet's spin. Their orbits cluster in three groups of 15 to 20 objects, named for members Ananke (discovered in 1951), Carme (1938), and Pasiphae (1908). Most likely each of these moonlet "families" represent fragments of larger precursors that were shattered by collisions early in Jupiter's history.


It's challenging to keep track of Jupiter's 79 known satellites. The planet's prograde moons (purple, blue) orbit relatively close to Jupiter while its retrograde moons (red) are farther out. One exceptions is Valetudo (green), a prograde-moving body that's far out. The 10 new finds announced today (along with two moons announced last year) are indicated with brighter colors. This animation shows the system in motion. Carnegie Inst. for Science / Roberto Molar Candanosa

Of the 10 new finds, seven of them are among these retrograde objects. Two of them orbit Jupiter in prograde directions (in the same sense as Jupiter's rotation) and appear to be members of a smaller group anchored by Himalia (discovered in 1904).

"Our other discovery is a real oddball and has an orbit like no other known Jovian moon," Sheppard notes in a Carnegie press release. Initially designated S/2016 J2 ("S" for satellite, "J" for Jupiter), it's far enough from the planet to be in the midst of the retrograde swarm. But this new find, provisionally named Valetudo, has a prograde orbit with an inclination of 34°.

Confusingly, Carnegie's press release describes 12 (not 10) new moonlets. But this higher tally includes S/2016 J1 and S/2017 J1, both of which were announced by the Minor Planet Center last year.

Valetudo-image-animation.gif

Recovery images of Valetudo from the Magellan telescope in May 2018. The moon can be seen moving relative to background stars. Jupiter is outside the field toward upper left. Carnegie Inst. for Science / Scott Sheppard

Valetudo was an exceedingly dim magnitude 23.9 when first spotted by Sheppard in March 2016. If its surface is only 5% reflective — typical for small outer-planet bodies — then this moonlet is likely less than 1 km across, making it Jupiter’s smallest.


With the exception of Valetudo, all of the new finds were swept up in early 2017, when Sheppard was on solo observing runs in Chile using the 6.5-m Magellan-Baade reflector Las Campanas and the 4.0-m Blanco reflector on Cerro Tololo.


"Jupiter just happened to be in the sky near the search fields where we were looking for extremely distant solar system objects," he explains. Sheppard, together with David Tholen (University of Hawai'i) and Chad Trujillo (Northern Arizona University) are one of the teams searching for a putative massive planet thought to lie far beyond Pluto.

Since then, follow-up observations have tracked them well enough to establish firm orbits for each object. Valetudo, in particular, becomes eligible for naming because it has now been observed during three oppositions of Jupiter. Valetudo is the Roman goddess of health and hygiene; she's a descendant of Jupiter and known as Hygieia in Greek mythology.

Sheppard's searches also swept up S/2003 J19, an object that had not been spotted since observer Brett Gladman (University of British Columbia) and others discovered it in 2003. It's one of 11 "lost" satellites of Jupiter (and seven around Saturn) whose orbits are so poorly known that they'll likely have to be discovered all over again. Fortunately, Sheppard told Sky & Telescope, "We found most of Jupiter's lost moons as well."

Characteristics of the 10 newly found moons of Jupiter are below. See Sheppard's Jupiter moons page for more discussion of the planet's clusters of prograde and retrograde satellites.

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Flashback:

Calar Alto Images of Impact Sites on Jupiter 25 July 1994

Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page -- Sott.net

Just reminded me of RedFox
Session 11 October 2014
Jupiter, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and the Return of the Mongols by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
One thing I would like to draw the reader's attention to is Jessup's reference to Jupiter. As it happens, I'm rather fond of Jupiter for a number of reasons. Those readers who have read the story of the Cassiopaean Experiment are aware that the breakthrough in the experiment that resulted in the superluminal communication from "Us in the Future" came at the exact moment the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy began to impact the surface of Jupiter
 
This truly proves that Jupiter is our solar systems vacuum, the cleanup crew. But it does give the question, ‘Are some or all of these Trojans really comets?’ If this is true, then ‘Is this our cluster of comets that we have been waiting for?’ I debate it within myself, not preceding Wave that I can associated it to. But I could be wrong.

A fairly good article that demonstrates the idea, Haiku …
Astronomers have just detected a new kind of asteroid orbiting Jupiter -- Sott.net
 
Jupiter's moon Io is having a major outburst!

 
Jupiter added another 12 new moons to it's collection!

 
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