Asteroid - Earth Record-Setting Close Encounter

Asteroid 2012 DA14

The Big Day is Almost Here!!

The Asteroid will come Extremely Close to Earth

on:

February 15, 2013

January 05, 2013 

CNN's Wolf Blitzer and meteorologist Chad Myers discuss the near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 in the following video.

NASA says that the asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within about 3.5 Earth radii of the Earth's surface on February 15, 2013. It will pass inside the geosynchronous satellite ring, located about 35,800 kilometers (21,748 miles) above the equator. The impact energy is listed as 2.41 megatons of TNT. Fortunately, NASA says this asteroid is not Earth bound. The asteroid rates as a 0 on the Torino Scale impact hazard scale.

 

At its closest approach, Myers says the asteroid could be as close as 14,000 miles from the Earth. The small asteroid is estimated to be about 45 meters (about 150 feet) across. It is not likely to collide with any satellites. However, passing close to the Earth could cause the asteroid's orbit to change and bring it closer to Earth - or father away from Earth - on its next visit.

On Feb. 15th an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, astronomers have never seen an object so big come so close to our planet.

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How close exactly? Just 17,200 miles above our planet's surface, according to NASA. That puts the 50-meter-wide space rock nearer to Earth than many satellite orbits (just check out the video above).
"This is a record-setting close approach," planetary scientist Don Yeomans of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a written statement. "Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth."
But don't freak out. The asteroid isn't expected to hit us. As Yeomans said, "2012 DA14 will definitely not hit Earth. The orbit of the asteroid is known well enough to rule out an impact."

In this oblique view, the path of near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 is seen passing close to Earth on Feb. 15, 2013.

As the asteroid will be nearby, skywatchers may be able to view the flyby with a telescope -- but only if they're fast enough to catch it as it streaks by.

“The asteroid will be racing across the sky, moving almost a full degree (or twice the width of a full Moon) every minute," Yeomans said in the statement. "That’s going to be hard to track."

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READ MORE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_DA14