back to article NASA readies its asteroid warning system for harmless flyby

With asteroid 2012 TC4 about to pass between Earth and the moon, NASA is gearing up for its much-anticipated live test of its warning system. Back in July, the approaching rock caused a brief flurry of speculation that an impact was imminent, before the European Space Agency issued a “calm down” statement. With error bars …

  1. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    Why quote times in EST on a British website? Couldn't be bothered to convert to BST or better yet GMT for an international audience? Most people know their timezone's offset from GMT.

    1. Cynical Observer
      Pint

      Not GMT.

      UTC is the time standard. GMT is the zone - which of course is different to BST.

      Now just need to wait a couple of weeks for the annual "Let's scrap daylight savings" discussion best carried out over several ------>

    2. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Boffin

      EDT might as well be outer-bongo-bongo-land time for all the sense it makes to anyone elsewhere in the world.

      UTC is the standard and that's the way I like it. I'm not bothered by the microsecond differences to GMT either, so that would also be acceptable.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Except we are in BST, so that would be handy to know too.

        1. John Robson Silver badge

          UTC <-> BST is pretty easy to deal with.

          In the same way that UTC <-> EQT (or whatever it was) is fairly easy to deal with if you are in EQT.

          If the asteroid was going to impact somewhere then by all means use that TZ, but add UTC in parentheses.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
          Headmaster

          @Symon

          From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time

          "Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes (but this is not formalised) and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1 (the modern form of mean solar time at 0° longitude); these two meanings can differ by up to 0.9 s. Consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes"

          So GMT can be either UTC or UT1 depending on context. They can therefore be up to 0.9s apart. QED.

          OK, so 'microsecond' was a poor choice of magnitude, but my point still stands.

    3. JimC

      > Why quote times in EST on a British website?

      There are sound arguments for quoting the original content rather than converting it. Would have been nice to list the GMT offset though.

      For those who haven't clicked through, the closest approach is going to be over antarctica, so presumably no point in Brits looking out.

    4. phuzz Silver badge
      Boffin

      As a Brit obviously it would be easiest to have the time given in BST (currently), but as there's readers all over the world, giving a time in UTC would be the best option because that way each reader only has to make one calculation, based on their current offset from UTC.

      When there's a time in some obscure local timezone, most readers have to go find out the offset from (in this case) EDT to UTC, and then convert from UTC into local time.

      So please elReg, make your editorial standard, at least for events with global impact*, to report times in UTC.

      * hopefully not the best word to use for this particular story.

      1. David Nash Silver badge

        +1 for UTC. Especially as it's an astronomy-related story.

        You really do yourselves no favours (translation for the author: favors) by using local units especially in a scientific context.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The culprit is NASA, which didn't reported times in UTC in the original article - reporting also US timezones times for all those Americans weak in basic arithmetic, or who believe the Earth is flat and the whole world has the same time time as theirs.

      Even the N is NASA is "National", they are followed around the world, and even they are reporting observation made by non US entities.

      1. Mark 85

        Indeed, NASA should include UTC but for some reason, they don't. OTOH, El Reg should run the conversion and put it in the articles. Even though I'm in the States, there should be UTC as El Reg is international in scope.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Don't Panic!

    [sounds on digging...]

  3. Gti Jazz Blue
    Alert

    So I need to duck at 6:42 tomorrow morning? I hope it doesn't interrupt my usual wake-up to Chris on Radio Two :-)

    1. druck Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Being hit by an asteroid would be vastly preferable than listening to Chris Evans in the morning (or any time).

  4. imanidiot Silver badge
    Alien

    Bit late ain't it?

    Bit late to fire up the astroid WARNING system if you know it's already there and know exactly where it;s going to be. I'd think the ones we DON'T see and of which we don't know where they are that we should be warned about.

    And are we sure it's an asteroid? "Those aren't moons!"

    1. Alister
      Facepalm

      Re: Bit late ain't it?

      It's a test!

      In order for it to be a successful test, they need to already know the asteroid is there, to see if the warning system detects it.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Bit late ain't it?

        My early warning system for detecting elephant stampedes works perfectly. There hasn't been a single death or even injury caused by elephant stampedes in the North Harrow area for the 20 years it has been operational. I'm 100% confident that it works.

        And has for my parachute manufacturing company, I've never had a single complaint about faulty products.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Please tell this warning system has "alerts"

    In order of severity,

    "Green"

    "Yellow"

    "Red"

    and finally "Brown"

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Are you sure?

      It means changing the light bulb.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Are you sure?

        They can use an IoT changing one, what could possibly go wrong?

        Though technically they don't need one for brown as it's too late as the asteroid has followed through on it's trajectory and you really are in the shit.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Are you sure?

          Providing the lump that you detected deforming the fabric of space-time was an asteroid, and not a haemorrhoid. Or the head of the Great A'Tuin.

        2. David Nash Silver badge

          Re: Are you sure?

          "Though technically they don't need one for brown"

          Yes that was the joke. Why do some people persist in explaining other people's jokes?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Are you sure?

            I'm now in a philosophical quandary.

            If I respond to your comment I do the thing you complain about in your comment.

            If I don't then maybe you didn't see how the joke followed through from the first one responding to the other commentard.

            There's no easy way to get to the bottom of this though it's had a good run.

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

              1. Mark 85

                Re: Are you sure?

                Caught between two stools?

                Or between a rock and a brown pile?

                There's an old saw about: "Don't know whether to shit or go blind" that applies... maybe squat down and close one eye?

  6. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    No doubt it will be cloudy

    Besides, magnitude 17 is too faint for my 8" scope, alas.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Potaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatoes

    Innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

    Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Potaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatoes

      Spudnik.

  8. DropBear
    Devil

    "- Huh, so that how you properly buzz the tower...!"

    "- ...which tower?"

    "- ALL THE TOWERS!"

  9. MT Field
    Alien

    No need to panic

    It's just picking up and dropping off.

  10. Canna

    Fly Past? What a Waste of a Rocket!!!

    Why do a fly past of it. If its a test for defence purposes, why not put a few tons of TNT in the rockets cone and blast it out of existence. That would be a real test for defence purposes! Thats of course if everyone involved can tell the correct time. LOL. With a bit of luck the bits might get the satellites that broadcast the Sky TV channels in the UK.

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