MABB v6.6.6

A visualisation of an asteroid's path of orbit which nearly collided with the Earth and Moon in 2003. Apparently, part of a NASA rocket.

fucking dinosaurs innit

Haha you fucked a dinosaur. Youre GAY.

so close. too bad

lavabug signal



could a somewhat accurate path of this be predicted after observing it after a few rotations?

fucking general relativity innit

wowzers.

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That's awesome.



[quote name="zim"]lavabug signal



could a somewhat accurate path of this be predicted after observing it after a few rotations?[/quote]

Depending on how far into the future you want to look, a very accurate path could be determined with even less information than that, provided the observations/measurements of the object's velocities and distances to the earth had low uncertainties, and effects between the moon and asteroid were negligible. At the end where the thing flies off after a close moon encounter, the latter probably doesn't hold up.



Classical mechanics is a relatively predictable cunt, innit.

very cool



i seriously need to get my ass in gear with some math and physics

Yeah neptune was predicted before it was actually seen because of perturbations in neptunes movement. ie Neptune wasn't where it was 'supposed' to be according to dem physics.

[youtube]ktrtvCvZb28[/youtube]

This year Rosetta will land on a comet!

The only thing about the Solar system that wasn't predicted by Newtonian physics was the precession of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit. There was a stupidly small disagreement with theory and observation. Up until GR was developed, which accounted for it with extreme precision. That Einstein okahoma slamma kept shit real.

Einstein

[quote name="Abzu"]Einstein [/quote]

[quote name="Lavabug"]



The only thing about the Solar system that wasn't predicted by Newtonian physics was the precession of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit. There was a stupidly small disagreement with theory and observation. Up until GR was developed, which accounted for it with extreme precision. That Einstein handsome leprechaun kept shit real.[/quote]



They predicted the sun this way?

Going into pedantic-as-fuck land, I should have said the only thing about Solar system's translational planetary motions.



The weird direction of Neptune's (and Mercury's?) rotation axis is explained with past collision events, but this has no bearing on their translational motions.

that animation is quite pretty

The phenomenon where co-orbits sync up enough to throw one body out of orbit is called orbital resonance.



One of my favourite terms.

Here's a really good "freeware" book on the subject if any of you are curious, accessible if you know the basics of vectors and calculus:

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[quote name="Hugo."]The phenomenon where co-orbits sync up enough to throw one body out of orbit is called orbital resonance.



One of my favourite terms. [/quote]



better known as "a really bad breakup"