Near-Earth Object? (NEO)?

Question

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood. Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.upcoming NEO to Earth, 2007-Aug-29

Objects Name;

85275 (1994 LY)

(2007 PF28)

(2007 PP9)

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

and here you can see a representation in 3-D of the Orbit Diagram,for 85275 (1994 LY)http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=85275;orb=1

isn't this an extraordinary example of the work NASA does?

Answer 1

Yes, I'm aware of NEOs, and NASA is one of the most needed and incredibly great institutions we are blessed with, although when you consider the paltry funding that NASA gets compared to the war budget, you have to wonder what happened to the visionaries of this world.  A NEO, as I understand it, is very likely a planet killer.  It doesn't happen very often, but if the Shoemaker-Levy comet had hit Earth instead of Jupiter, it would have been doom.

Answer 2

yes, absolutly extraordinary

Answer 3

Thank you. :-)

Do you know if it can be viewed with an ordinary telescope?

We actually have darkness again in our nighttime skies, and it would be very interesting to observe this.

Answer 4

Thank you