nasa Record-Setting Asteroid to Shave Past Earth in February

[Hum]

An asteroid about half the size of a football field will zoom past Earth on Feb. 15, closer than the man-made satellites that power GPS, says NASA.

?This is a record-setting close approach,? Don Yeomans of NASA?s Near Earth Object Program at JPL said in a video released by NASA this week. Yeomans, however, emphasized that the asteroid, designated 2012DA14, won?t hit Earth.

?It will come interestingly close, closer than many man-made satellites,? he said.

2012DA14 will thread the gap between low earth orbit, where the International Space Station and many earth observation satellites are located and the higher belt of geosynchronous satellites, which provide weather data and telecommunications.

At its closest point, the asteroid will only be 17,200 miles above our planet?s surface.

?The odds of impact with a satellite are extremely remote,? Yeomans adds. ?Almost nothing orbits where DA14 passes the Earth.

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[Growled Member]

That's getting too close for comfort for me.

[Hum]

^ Good time to test those NASA asteroid defense plans. :p

Will be interesting if the rock knocks out a few Earth satellites.

[Growled Member]

I hope they aren't planning on using that paint gun defense. :p

[Crisp]

Small Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth Safely

Diagram depicting the passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system on Feb. 15, 2013. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15, at about 11:24 p.m. PST (2 p.m. EST and 1924 UT), when it will be at a distance of about 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles) above Earth's surface. Although this is close enough for the asteroid to pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, located about 35,800 kilometers (22,200 miles) above the equator, it will still be well above the vast majority of satellites, including the International Space Station. At its closest, the asteroid will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the moon. The asteroid will fly by our planet quite rapidly, at a speed of about 17,400 mph (7.8 kilometers per second) in a south-to-north direction with respect to Earth.

Even though 2012 DA14 is coming remarkably close, it will still only appear as a point of light in the biggest of optical telescopes, because of its small size. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate that it is only about 45 meters (150 feet) across. It will brighten only to magnitude 7.5, too faint to be seen with the naked eye, but easily visible with a good set of binoculars or a small telescope. The best viewing location for the closest approach will be Indonesia, from which the asteroid will be seen to move at a rate of almost 1 degree per minute against the star background. Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia are also well situated to see the asteroid around its closest approach. But by the time Earth rotates enough for observers in the continental United States to have a chance to see the asteroid, it will have receded and faded to about the 11th magnitude. Radar astronomers plan to take images of the asteroid about eight hours after closest approach using the Goldstone antenna in California?s Mojave Desert, which is part of NASA?s Deep Space Network.

2012 DA14 has not been in the catalogues for very long -- it was discovered in February of 2012 by astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey program in southern Spain and reported to the Minor Planet Center, which designates minor bodies in our solar system. At the time of the discovery, the asteroid had just made a fairly distant passage by Earth, about seven times farther than the distance to the moon. Since 2012 DA14's orbital period around the sun has been about 368 days, which is very similar to Earth's, the asteroid made a series of annual close approaches. This year?s is the closest approach, and is the closest the asteroid will come for at least three decades. But this encounter will shorten 2012 DA14's orbital period to about 317 days, changing its orbital class from Apollo to Aten, and its future close approaches will follow a different pattern.

This passage of 2012 DA14 by Earth is a record close approach for a known object of this size. A few other known asteroids have flown by Earth even closer, but those asteroids were smaller. On average, we expect an object of this size to get this close to Earth about once every 40 years. An actual Earth collision by an object of this size would be expected much less frequently, about once every 1,200 years, on average.

Source

[Torolol]

I notice the Asteroid' tracks would goes to inside of the geosynchronous ring,

therefore its possible for human to invoke mini-apocalypse by trashing plenty materials into earth's orbit (human made satelites).

those space trash may affect the Asteroid' tracks perhaps due minimaly altered gravitational fields.

[Growled Member]

Even though 2012 DA14 is coming remarkably close, it will still only appear as a point of light in the biggest of optical telescopes, because of its small size.

I was hoping for something more spectacular.

[John S. Veteran]

threads merged

[Hum]

Asteroid Will Miss Earth By Just 15 Minutes

Nye, who heads up the Planetary Society, told CNN on Saturday that the asteroid -- dubbed 2012 DA14 -- is just one of about 100,000 asteroids whose orbits may bring them our way. But as he says in the video above, "get nervous, but not about this one."

"This one will miss us by about 15 minutes --15 minutes difference and that's it," Nye told CNN. "So it's something that we humans all over the world ought to get involved in, this asteroid-hunting. We're the first generation of people that could do something about it. It's exciting science, but it also, I hope, gives everybody a little pause for thought."

As for asteroid 2012 DA14, NASA scientists say there is no chance the space rock will hit Earth. Rather, it will come close to our planet, passing within about 17,200 miles.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/bill-nye-asteroid-2012-da14-february-15-space-rocks_n_2662826.html

[Jim K Global Moderator]

That's getting too close for comfort for me.

Still feeling the same after Hum posted this....

Asteroid Will Miss Earth By Just 15 Minutes

:woot:

Crazy...since 15 minutes is nothing in the "grand scheme"

[Growled Member]

Still feeling the same after Hum posted this....

No. I'm on pins and needles now. :p

[Hum]

I'm no expert, but 15 minutes seems like plenty of room for science to miscalculate. :s

I would not be at all surprised if there are a few satellite missiles launched ...

[Growled Member]

I'm no expert, but 15 minutes seems like plenty of room for science to miscalculate. :s

Not to worry, our alien overlords are watching over us to make sure everything is all right.

[Hum]

Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Worth $195 Billion

The space rock set to give Earth a historically close shave this Friday (Feb. 15) may be worth nearly $200 billion, prospective asteroid miners say.

The 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 ? which will zoom within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth on Friday, marking the closest approach by such a large space rock that astronomers have ever known about in advance ? may harbor $65 billion of recoverable water and $130 billion in metals, say officials with celestial mining firm Deep Space Industries.

That's just a guess, they stressed, since 2012 DA14's composition is not well known and its size is an estimate based on the asteroid's brightness.

The company has no plans to go after 2012 DA14; the asteroid's orbit is highly tilted relative to Earth, making it too difficult to chase down. But the space rock's close flyby serves to illustrate the wealth of asteroid resources just waiting to be extracted and used, Deep Space officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/earth-buzzing-asteroid-worth-195-billion-space-miners-040837560.html

[LaP]

Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Worth $195 Billion

Yeah but how do you stop and recuperate an asteroid? The speed of that thing must be insane ;)

[Growled Member]

^ It'd be interesting to see them try.

[DocM]

[Hum]

Its closest approach is at 19:25 GMT.

So about 13 hours from now ... ?

Or has it passed ?

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

Its closest approach is at 19:25 GMT.

So about 13 hours from now ... ?

Or has it passed ?

It's only 18.43GMT at the moment as I post

Live NASA feed

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

[moloko]

Yeah but how do you stop and recuperate an asteroid? The speed of that thing must be insane ;)

its going about 8km a second (est). But for 195$ billion it would cost 10's of billions to get there. very good if you could catch it. Maybe even some super rare stuff on there that would be worth even more.

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

If you miss it, it should be back every year apparantly, according to BBC news today!!

[George P Global Moderator]

It's a shame in a way that it's so small you need a big telescope to even see it.

[Hum]

If you miss it, it should be back every year apparantly, according to BBC news today!!

That should guarantee a hit :s