How does this affect Earth's status as a planet? The asteroid seems to be sharing our orbit, and the IAU has decided that if you haven't cleared your orbit you're not a planet. That's how Pluto got disqualified.
'Clearing your orbit' is not a qualitative term. It is actually something that is quantifiable: a value that expresses the relation of the mass in the planet's orbit compared to the mass of the planet itself.
A tiny asteroid won't change that value much for Earth, which is more than comfortably a planet under this definition. The mass of this asteroid may not even affect the estimates of the mass of the regular space debris in our orbit even (haven't checked).
I didn't know that the "clearing your orbit" requirement had the caveat that it had to be cleared up to a given mass ratio. Do you know what that mass ratio is?
Or worse, like Andromeda Strain [1], full of dangerous viruses. Maybe we could sample it for viruses but can we test its full volume for viruses before bringing it on earth? But, it may lie dormant there and pass tests there, and once in Earth's climate, springs to life.
In either way, gold or viruses, very thrilling.
No, you can't technically call "dibs" on it. It's not enough that all governments on earth have taken up all the land on the planet, they claim all of space as well:
It's been ratified by most of the governments on our planet.
The key part from the wiki page:
"[...]the Treaty states that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means"
> [the Outer Space Treaty has] been ratified by most of the governments on our planet
The United States has already started passing legislation [1] which lets American companies claim ownership of celestial objects with the backing and force of American law and law enforcement.
It would seem the treaty is really about weapons of mass destruction and similar threats. All planets to be used only for peaceful purposes? Good luck with that.
The treaty had a meaning when there were basically two-three countries capable of doing anything in space. Now we have private corporations doing similar feats.
Soon it will be recognized as obsolete and new laws will be needed.
Fun! So now to find the writeup for the KSP parameters for an intercept. It would be fascinating if it were an alien artifact, designed in such a way that you would have to reach a certain level of technology to actually see it, and then a bit further to go out and visit it. Leave a box on it with pictures for how to call the aliens to have a talk with them.
Unless it's made from stacks of crisp USD bills, I doubt they will be interested. Because that's what they seem to have been focused on mining to date.
I find that so disappointing. Of course there are people already planning to rip resources out of the cosmos. Once you've left Earth barren, of course it makes sense to spread our destructive tendencies throughout the solar system / galaxy.
Unless you plan on us living a life of bare subsistence, and artificially-limiting our population growth, there is no way around it. There is no equivalent to "being one with mother-nature" when you get to this stage. At this point, resources are just there to fuel our existence, and using up barren raw-resource pockets outside of our current "home" seems like a very good way of doing it.
I don't disagree that humanity is 'wasteful', but these 'destructive' tendencies will be necessary for the creation and propagation of _life_ beyond/within our solar system.
What do you value more, preservation of the cosmos in their current state, or the expansion of our existence beyond Earth.
I think the fact that companies are already looking to mine asteroids is nothing short of awesome and inspiring.
Are we a dwarf planet now?