Quote:
Originally Posted by CoombellKid
Stuart,
The asteroid being at mag 24.3 makes it a fairly faint object, with the moon
heading to Fullmoon on the 24th that maybe causing a few problem for
ground based instruments trying to track it, not sure where the info came
from on that one. Yes as you can see it isn't sitting behind the moon.
Near Earth Orbiting Objects came in many varried orbit's. Most are not
discovered until they have gone past us, which is a bit of a worry. But
if the circumstances were right, I see no reason why one couldn't be hidden
for a time behind the moon, but for 2 weeks I'm not too sure about that.
just my thoughts, but I could be wrong.
regards,CS
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Hi CS,
Yes, perhaps it's just the translation from astronomer speak to media speak. Hidden in the glare of the moon could translate to hidden by the moon by the time it reaches a science reporters fingertips. Still, Hubble doesn't have that limitation, so why not use it.
What's the bet that this thing will take out at least one orbiting spacecraft, and with it all the images from Mars, or it'll miss completely.
Cheers
Stuart