Watch the sky.

[Plane]

http://www.spaceweather.com/

Asteroid 2014 RC was discovered on the night of August 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and independently detected the next night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of Haleakal? on Maui, Hawaii.  Follow-up observations quickly confirmed the orbit of 2014 RC: it comes from just beyond the orbit of Mars.

This Sunday, a house-sized asteroid named "2014 RC" will fly through the Earth-Moon system almost inside the orbit of geosynchronous satellites. At closest approach, Sept. 7th at 18:18 UTC, the 20-meter-wide space rock will pass just 40,000 km over New Zealand. This diagram from NASA shows the geometry of the encounter:

[Plane]

http://www.spaceweather.com/

ASTEROID FLIES BY EARTH:  On Sunday, Sept. 7th, house-sized asteroid 2014 RC flew past Earth. There was no danger of a collision, but the space rock was close. It sailed just underneath Earth's belt of geeosynchronous satellites and about 40,000 km over New Zealand. Using robotic telescope in Australia, a team of astronomers led by Ernesto Guido photographed 2014 RC zipping through the southern constellation Phoenix at 10 km/s (22,000 mph):



2014 RC came from the asteroid belt just beyond the orbit of Mars. According to NASA, "2014 RC will return to our planet's neighborhood in the future. The asteroid's future motion will be closely monitored, but no future threatening Earth encounters have been identified." [ephemeris] [3D orbit]

MORE ASTEROID NEWS: Now that 2014 RC has passed, another even weirder asteroid is approaching Earth's neighborhood. 2002 CE26 is a binary asteroid consisiting of a primary space rock 3.5 km in diameter and a secondary approximately one-tenth as wide. What's weird is, radar data suggest that the secondary space rock might have a moon of its own. Alberto Quijano Vodniza of the University of Narino Observatory in Colombia photographed the triple system streaking through the constellation Pegasus on Sept. 2nd:

[Xavier_Onassis]

We never used to think much about asteroids, because we did not know there were so many of them.

[Plane]

  We might know about half of them at this point .

    But until we have tracked a lot more of them , we won't know if now we know half or perhaps less.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Until we have tracked them all, we will continue to be unaware of the halfway point.

The problem might be counting the same one twice.

[Plane]

Until we have tracked them all, we will continue to be unaware of the halfway point.

The problem might be counting the same one twice.

No , we are pretty good at tracking and cataloging them once they are spotted.

NASA can even predict their position several years ahead if they are seen twice.

[Xavier_Onassis]

That is indeed helpful. NASA may eventually be more useful for tracking astronauts than its more spectacular actions.

The Universe is only as orderly as it has to be to continue existing. It is a balance between chaos and order that itself is a form of order.

[Plane]

Not even that.

Does the universe have need to continue to exist? or any motives at all?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Universe does not exist because it has the will to do so. There is no intent or motive so far as I can determine.

The idea that billions of worlds exist so that God has a place to cultivate a species that will praise him seems rather silly.

Behond!  God the bonsai gardener.

[Plane]

  Frankly I do not know whether God needs a hobby , or whether our existence is part of some longer and greater ongoing creation, that God loves us is stated in scripture , the reason why is not completely covered.

  My supposition is that creation is an ongoing thing and we are a part of it , perhaps a stage of it or a small cog in a machine too grand to be explained to us.

   Through the glass the other way , "man is the measure of all things" , which is an early statement of the "Anthromorphic" principal.

     We do live in a universe that shows us real examples of chaos, but repeats orderly cycles that our lives depend on.

I like that you said "The Universe is only as orderly as it has to be to continue existing. It is a balance between chaos and order that itself is a form of order."

  This is a neat little compact statement that has more than one way to be true.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Man is the measure of all things is a statement from the Classical Period that became popular in the Renaissance. Painters quit painting giant Jesi surrounded by swarms of  teensy believers, as in the Middle Ages.

For the Church, God is the measure of all things. Man is a wretched sinner who undeservedly receives God's love and compassion. That was the Church's view then and is the Church's view today.

The idea that the entire Universe was created just so God could fiddle around with his puny imperfect, undeserving inventions, whose only duty is to sing His praises is what I call a silly way to regard the Universe.

 

[Plane]

  You are projecting aren't you?


   I think the universe is awesome, and that our bit of it is small.

     That God shows us interest is amazing.

     That it is mostly plasma is a fact, the main part of the Universe is not useful to us, does this make it a waste?

[Xavier_Onassis]

That is silly.

Why do you say that God shows interest? Because He sent the Bible? Oh, please.
God created malaria, guinea worms and all manner of hideous diseases. At least I know that men did not invent them, and who is left?

God shows interest in your mind because that is where your God lives. He could be Zeus, Ahura Mazda or Lord Krishna, and probably would be had you been raised elsewhere..

We use what parts of the Universe we can, it is no more a waste than the air is a waste because we cannot breathe it all, or the sea is a waste because we cannot drink it.

We do what we can.  Jesus maybe cured a dozen lepers in the Bible. There were apparently lepers all over the place.

I ask you, when was the last time you saw a leper? I have seen them only in the movies,

Jesus and God did not end leprosy. Humans did it through methodical study of the causes of the disease and figured out a cure. You have to go to really backward parts of the Third World to find a leper.

[Plane]

  You very likely have a leper in your yard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/health/28leprosy.html?_r=0

[Plane]

That is silly.

Why do you say that God shows interest? Because He sent the Bible? Oh, please.

   Because the Bible works as advertised.

   In what scripture does God admit that he owes people comfort , health, sustenance?