Near Earth Objects

[Methuselah]

At 0.6 LD - i.e. 6.10ths of the way to the Moon at closest approach - I don't think there's too much need to worry this time round.

I doubt that there's any cause for worrying at all, CR...Much ado about nothing?

[pyrotech]

There is an article about the 2012 EG5 in this area, it is in asteroid visible from Earth forum, Its not going to hit Earth.

Its a close encounter, but not highly unusual, a few have passed at that distance recently, its just we are more aware of them.

The size is critical thou, if it had been a 1 KM size then the gravitational pull would have helped steer a collision.

[VillagePlank]

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news174.html

[Backtrack]

Sky news has a story about this up today http://news.sky.com/...rticle/16189789

I love the way that 50m space rock is the size of the USA on their picture.

NEW FOUND ASTEROID 2012 EG5 WILL COME VERY CLOSE TO EARTH 1ST APRIL 2012

https://www.youtube....CNywp30

This year, April fools fancied a change. So instead of a harmless prank....EVERYONE WILL DIE. MUHAHAHA.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[Love Snow]

Let's hope sky don't share the same calculator as George Osborne

[The PIT]

George will be working out how much VAT he can put on it.

[Methuselah]

Will a 'Asteroid Tax' push up the price of Preparation H???

[Polar Maritime]

ASTEROID FLYBY: A 13-meter space rock from the asteroid belt is flying past our planet today midway between Earth and the orbit of the Moon. There is no danger of a collision; at closest approach asteroid 2012 JU will be 190,000 km away. http://www.spaceweather.com/

[frogesque]

One of these days we'll get blasted by one, don't think we'll be around to see it though!

Well we probably wouln't be around afterwards

[Polar Maritime]

BIG ASTEROID FLYBY: Large near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis is flying past Earth this week. At closest approach on Dec. 12th, it will be 7 million km away, or 18 times farther than the Moon. Astronomers are taking advantage of the flyby to learn more about the asteroid's orbit, shape, and topography. Here are a few shadowy images of the asteroid illuminated by NASA's Goldstone radar in the Mojave desert:

Measuring 5 km in length, Toutatis is one of the largest known potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and its orbit is inclined less than half-a-degree from Earth's. No other kilometer-sized PHA moves around the Sun in an orbit so nearly coplanar with our own. This makes it an important target for asteroid studies.

Fortunately, there is no danger of a collision with Toutatis for hundreds of years. Radar observations should improve researchers' ability to predict the asteroid's trajectory even farther into the future. Goldstone will pinging Toutatis from now until Dec. 22nd. http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Polar Maritime]

[frogesque]

Even closer one next year. Not as big as 4179 Toutais but should keep the doom merchants happy

2012DA14 : Feb 15th : 0.09LD 57m

[The watcher]

Even closer one next year. Not as big as 4179 Toutais but should keep the doom merchants happy

2012DA14 : Feb 15th : 0.09LD 57m

I calculate that as around 35,000km away. Roughly you could fit 3 earths between us and its nearest point.

Edited December 10, 2012 by The watcher

[frogesque]

Yep, close but no cigar!

[Methuselah]

I know it's a long shot, but is there any chance of Earth colliding with David Icke's brain, any time soon? No, I though not!

[frogesque]

I think it would simply glide through the æther.

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]

RECORD-SETTING ASTEROID FLYBY: 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. [full story] http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]

I will sleep better when it's past on gone !

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsBUZy1ZCYQ

Edited February 5, 2013 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

Asteroid 2012 DA14: how to spot it

This evening asteroid 2012 DA14 skims closer to our planet than any other known asteroid. Although invisible to the naked eye, binoculars can bring the space rock into focus. Or simply watch the webcast.Stuart Clark

• guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 February 2013 06.18 GMT

This could be the last close pass of Earth by asteroid 2012 DA14. Photograph: Nasa/JPL-Caltech/EPA

Space rock 2012 DA14 is only 50 metres across. It will pass the Earth on Friday evening (UK time) just 17,100 miles above our heads. There is no danger of a collision. Nevertheless, this is closer to the Earth than many artificial satellites.

It will pass from the southern to northern hemisphere and set the record for the closest pass of any known asteroid since systematic surveys of the sky began in the mid-1990s.

Animated visibility map for asteroid 2012 DA14 between 18:00 and 21:30 GMT. The asteroid will be visible from green areas. To replay, refresh this page in your browser. Image: Geert Barentsen

According to Don Yeomans of Nasa's Near-Earth Object Observation Programme, an asteroid like 2012 DA14 flies this close on average only once every 40 years. This time around, however, the next one is due sooner than that.

On 13 April 2029, Apophis will pass Earth closer than the ring of geostationary satellites. But, at an estimated distance of 19,400 miles, it will not break the record set tonight.

As for 2012 DA14, this could be its last close pass. Earth's gravitational field will significantly alter the asteroid's orbit around the sun, reducing its orbital period from 368 to 317 days. This will mean most of its orbit will be inside that of Earth's.

The next time the asteroid draws near to us will not be until 2046, again on 15 February. Then it will only draw to within about a million miles of our planet, or about four times further than the moon. So if you want to see 2012 DA14, this Friday is the night to try.

Nasa Television will broadcast a live webcast during closest approach on Friday, featuring commentary and images from telescopes around the world. It will start at 19:00 GMT (19:00 UT, 14:00 EST, 11:00 PST).

Streaming video by UstreamAsteroid flyby webcast provided by NASA. If you are using a mobile device, click here.

Even though 2012 DA14 comes so close and is relatively large (about half the length of a football field), it is not going to become bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Sky watchers can catch a glimpse of it using binoculars.This finder chart shows the position of the asteroid during its period of visibility. Clickhere for a larger version. Photograph: University of Hertfordshire.

The object will be visible through binoculars for about four hours between 18:00-22:00 GMT. It is best seen from Australia, Asia and Europe and will be travelling quite quickly for a celestial object, crossing an area of the sky as wide as the full moon roughly every 30 seconds.

The BBC Sky at Night's Pete Lawrence offers this advice for locating the object from the UK: "The asteroid pops up above the eastern horizon at around 20:00 UT. It passes very close to the star 7 Comae Berenices at 20:17 UT so a good strategy is to locate this star and use it as a stakeout position, looking for a fainter dot passing by between 20:15 UT and 20:20 UT."

Shortly after, 21:30 UT, 2012 DA14 will pass between two stars in the handle of the well-known constellation, The Plough (known to astronomers as Ursa Major). Although the asteroid will have faded somewhat, this offers another chance.

"Between 21:30 and 21:40, the asteroid crosses the line joining the stars Delta and Epsilon Ursae Majoris. The crossing point is roughly 2/5ths of the distance between Delta towards Epsilon and this is another good stakeout region," says Lawrence.

http://www.guardian....eroid-2012-da14

Edited February 15, 2013 by Polar Maritime

[Coast]

An asteroid big enough to flatten London will narrowly miss the Earth today, scientists have said.

Experts believe reassuringly there is no chance of the 150ft-wide space rock hitting the planet, but it could come as close as 17,200 miles - placing it within the orbits of more than 100 telecommunication and weather satellites.The asteroid, given the catchy name 2012 DA14, has been closely tracked since its discovery by a Spanish observatory a year ago.

It is predicted to reach its nearest point to Earth at around 7.30pm UK time today. Sky watchers have been told that given clear skies they should be able to track the rock climbing in the north-eastern sky from anywhere in the UK. Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: “It will be possible to see it if you know where to look, but just waving your binoculars in the right general direction isn't going to work.

“The asteroid will be a faint dot of light moving at a steady rate between the stars. It'll be thousands of times fainter than Jupiter and 250 times fainter than the stars of the Plough. “The trick will be to find the area in advance and wait for it to come through. You can use the star maps to find exactly the right part of the sky. If you hold your binoculars steady you will see this tiny point of light crawling across your field of view in about seven or eight minutes. “It's not easy, but you will have the thrill of knowing you are seeing a little object in space the size of an office block.â€

DA14 will take two hours to travel between the constellations of Leo and the Plough from 8pm.

Travelling at between 12,427mph (20,000kph) and 18,641mph (30,000kph) - around five miles (8km) a second, or eight times the speed of a rifle bullet - the asteroid will fly inside the orbits of high geostationary satellites some 22,000 miles (35,406km) above the Earth. Astronomer and asteroid expert Dr Dan Brown, from Nottingham Trent University, said: “There are loads of them but you're talking about a very big area. It would be very unlucky if a satellite was hit. The asteroid is more likely to hit some space junk, but most of this is only about a centimetre across and the impact won't even be noticed.â€

Precise calculations show there is absolutely no possibility of DA14 hitting the Earth. But scientists have a good idea of what the effect of such an impact would be because a similar-sized meteor devastated a remote region of Siberia in 1908. Exploding a short distance above the ground over Tunguska, the object generated a blast 1,000 times more powerful than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Forest was completely flattened over an area of 830 square miles (2,150 sq km).

During today's fly-by, scientists will use radar to study DA14 and learn about its composition and structure. The knowledge could prove useful if steps have to be taken to remove the threat of another space rock. The “Hollywood option†of blowing up an incoming asteroid has been ruled out by experts. Such a solution would only result in deadly debris raining down on Earth. Instead, scientists are looking at ways of gently nudging an asteroid onto a safer trajectory.

The American space agency Nasa has plans for a future mission called Dart which will fire a probe at an asteroid to see if it can be moved. Fewer than 10,000 of the asteroids which could one day pose a threat to the Earth have so far been identified. This is less than 10% of all the objects that may be out there, according to Dr Lindley Johnson, head of Nasa's Near Earth Objects observations programme.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-close-call-for-asteroid-big-enough-to-flatten-london-8496325.html

[Coast]

Space rocks explained

As fragments of a meteorite fall over Russia the Earth braces itself for a record-close brush with an asteroid, so what is the difference?

http://www.telegraph...-explained.html

[The watcher]

The video for that Russian Meteorite is amazing. Would scare people to death seeing it in real life. You can even hear the guy go "Woah" as his heart skips a beat.

[Polar Maritime]

NASA live tracking of 2012 DA14 http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

Edited February 15, 2013 by Polar Maritime