Near Earth Asteroid Visible In Daylight

[pyrotech]

A rare opportunity is close approaching to see a asteroid with the naked eye as it skims past the Earth.

Next Saturday 31st march asteroid 2012 EG5 approaches the Earth. This is one of the many near earth objects being monitored and it special properties gives users accross the Northern Hemisphere a view that is extremely rare.

2012 EG5 was first spotted during January 2012 and its course brings it to within 0.6 LD of the Earth. This means that it will be 4/10ths closer to us than the moon.

Roal polif of Korean space agency describes the 62m object as a metalic based projectile, rather than a more common rock based material.

" The main material of 2012 EGS is of a composition and density close to silver" The asteroid will appear first at 7 degrees above the western horizon shortly before midnight 31st March. Certain locations may see glimpses of the Asteroid as sunlight reflects of the 62m body. There is some uncertainty on how bright this will appear due to its great distance and relatively small size.

As dawn breaks the sun will be directly horizontal to the object and in perfect alignment with 2012 EGS to give anyone above 20 deg North a clear view. The asteroid will be clearly visible in daylight as it passes the earth on its closest approach starting at 8am on the Sunday morning, remaining clearly visible until 10:20 Am. At 11Am the asteroid will dissapear from view, as the light reflected no longer faces Earth. The asteroid will have travelled over 750,000 km during this short space of time.

Tips to see 2012 EGS

At 11pm 31st March the asteroid will enter the optimum position for the first time, and may as it rotates flash sunlight towards the Earth. It is estimated that the light ommitted at this stage will be less than Au3.

Sunday morning at 8am the alignment of the 3 objects begins it optimum for viewing. The Northern Hemisphere Earth will be at exactly 90deg to the horizontal path of sunlight from the Asteroid. This will be visible for all Northern locations as the Earth rotates and sun rises. So where ever you are in the Northern hemisphere the Asteroid will be visible at the times above for your local area.

As the sun reaches Mid Morning the light will hit the face of the Asteroid facing away from Earth and the Earth side will be in Shadow. The Asteroid will then be invisible and will dissapear into the solar system never to return again.

All areas above 20 Deg North will be able to clearly spot the object with the naked eye, looking like the brightest star ever seen, and in daylight. ( Weather permitting)

You will need

No telescope is needed to see 2012 EGS during its daylight pass.

Clear or partially clear skies will be needed.

A location at or North of Northern Africa, Barbados, Northern India and Northern China,

Europe and North America are prime Locations to view the Asteroid at 9am - 10am local time Sunday.

Please report first sightings here

[Jane Louise]

Thanks for sharing. I shall be lookin out for this.

[Wynn D Woo]

I predict it will be cloudy over the UK just at the crucial timing - as per usual for these things!

Thanks for the heads up

[pyrotech]

There are scare stories about this asteroid, It is not going to hit the Earth, It is not unusual for an asteroid to come between us and the moon, this one is unique due to its composition. please do not take notice of doomsday websites that say it will hit Earth - It will not !!

If you do want to know more about this asteroid then only use reliable websites like space weather.

[The PIT]

Thanks for sharing now I know it's going to be cloudy this weekend until it becomes invisable and then they'll be wall to wall sunshine...

[LeeKay]

Rare yes, but:

I am finding it difficult to find any more data to veryfy the event.

Weekend off work so ill be up and ready!

Thanks for the heads up.

[pyrotech]

Try spaceweather for details about this Asteroid, This is not closest recent asteroid was was 0.2 LD but its chemical make up that makes it interesting for viewing and its path aligning nicely in comparrison to angle of sun / Earth as it crosses our path. 6 hours earlier and this would not have happened. Its been dwarfed by stupid collision comments that are inaccurate, mainly end of world sites predicting a untrue collision likelyhood.

[Timini Cricket]

I don't see it myself - JPL ephemeris (set for Greenwich Observatory) puts its apparent magnitude at about 12 - hardly a daylight object. Typically a good pair of 7X50 binoculars just make out objects with apparent magnitude of 9 under excellent viewing conditions. During daylight, it is just possible to make out objects as bright as Venus, and the crescent moon for a day or so around new moon, but you do have to know the exact place to look. The only other daylight visible objects have been comets, and Mercury (in transit across the face of the sun).

Date__(UT)__HR:MN	R.A._(ICRF/J2000.0)_DEC  APmag		 delta	  deldot	S-O-T /r	S-T-O
*******************************************************************************************************
$$SOE
2012-Mar-31 16:00 *m  09 41 55.26 -14 13 35.7  13.92 0.00387334102614  -7.9390510 134.8241 /T  45.0175
2012-Mar-31 17:00 *m  09 44 55.01 -15 18 29.2  13.80 0.00368345834323  -7.8363924 135.3445 /T  44.5062
2012-Mar-31 18:00 *m  09 48 09.73 -16 29 59.0  13.67 0.00349636707492  -7.7071774 135.8719 /T  43.9876
2012-Mar-31 19:00 Cm  09 51 43.21 -17 48 54.3  13.54 0.00331269976896  -7.5520104 136.4056 /T  43.4626
2012-Mar-31 20:00 Am  09 55 40.53 -19 16 11.1  13.40 0.00313307194138  -7.3716350 136.9444 /T  42.9321
2012-Mar-31 21:00  m  10 00 08.33 -20 52 53.4  13.26 0.00295808399731  -7.1664796 137.4858 /T  42.3987
2012-Mar-31 22:00  m  10 05 15.22 -22 40 13.6  13.12 0.00278833523160  -6.9361104 138.0244 /T  41.8679
2012-Mar-31 23:00  m  10 11 12.36 -24 39 32.9  12.97 0.00262445190980  -6.6786122 138.5486 /T  41.3510
2012-Apr-01 00:00  m  10 18 14.14 -26 52 19.1  12.82 0.00246713080448  -6.3899302 139.0377 /T  40.8688
2012-Apr-01 01:00  m  10 26 39.29 -29 20 02.0  12.68 0.00231719847791  -6.0632333 139.4559 /T  40.4570
2012-Apr-01 02:00  m  10 36 52.40 -32 04 02.1  12.53 0.00217568459770  -5.6884074 139.7459 /T  40.1729
2012-Apr-01 03:00	 10 49 26.07 -35 05 08.6  12.39 0.00204390402510  -5.2518754 139.8218 /T  40.1020
2012-Apr-01 04:00 A   11 05 03.71 -38 23 00.0  12.27 0.00192353613536  -4.7370759 139.5639 /T  40.3642
2012-Apr-01 05:00 N   11 24 42.69 -41 54 58.5  12.16 0.00181667979585  -4.1261027 138.8214 /T  41.1098
2012-Apr-01 06:00 *   11 49 35.98 -45 34 33.2  12.09 0.00172584896602  -3.4030900 137.4300 /T  42.5030
>>>>>
2012-Apr-01 07:00 *   12 21 07.10 -49 09 19.9  12.06 0.00165386218831  -2.5596331 135.2498 /T  44.6836
<<<<<
2012-Apr-01 08:00 *   13 00 26.30 -52 19 36.0  12.08 0.00160358335047  -1.6014580 132.2151 /L  47.7172
2012-Apr-01 09:00 *   13 47 34.04 -54 39 47.5  12.15 0.00157751156833  -0.5536921 128.3760 /L  51.5537
2012-Apr-01 10:00 *   14 40 07.31 -55 45 48.3  12.28 0.00157730106372   0.5392331 123.9037 /L  56.0220
2012-Apr-01 11:00 *   15 33 15.71 -55 26 54.0  12.45 0.00160337607247   1.6214332 119.0526 /L  60.8679
2012-Apr-01 12:00 *   16 21 53.51 -53 52 26.9  12.67 0.00165480865144   2.6387033 114.0970 /L  65.8174
2012-Apr-01 13:00 *m  17 03 08.12 -51 25 49.3  12.92 0.00172951171156   3.5504221 109.2724 /L  70.6351
2012-Apr-01 14:00 *m  17 36 38.85 -48 32 19.2  13.19 0.00182464589964   4.3349194 104.7439 /L  75.1561
2012-Apr-01 15:00 *m  18 03 27.25 -45 31 30.1  13.46 0.00193706832504   4.9879385 100.6035 /L  79.2885
2012-Apr-01 16:00 *m  18 24 54.86 -42 35 40.1  13.73 0.00206369240145   5.5174307  96.8849 /L  82.9989
2012-Apr-01 17:00 *m  18 42 14.70 -39 51 19.2  14.00 0.00220171345150   5.9380446  93.5830 /L  86.2922
2012-Apr-01 18:00 *m  18 56 24.10 -37 21 09.8  14.25 0.00234871696058   6.2670169  90.6718 /L  89.1948
2012-Apr-01 19:00 Cm  19 08 05.85 -35 05 40.9  14.50 0.00250270805131   6.5216962  88.1153 /L  91.7425
2012-Apr-01 20:00 Am  19 17 51.46 -33 04 11.2  14.73 0.00266209717063   6.7182885  85.8756 /L  93.9734
2012-Apr-01 21:00  m  19 26 04.16 -31 15 26.9  14.94 0.00282566511552   6.8713218  83.9160 /L  95.9241

Interesting density though perhaps Iron/Nickel enriched with Iridium?

[stewfox]

I don't see it myself - JPL ephemeris (set for Greenwich Observatory) puts its apparent magnitude at about 12 - hardly a daylight object. Typically a good pair of 7X50 binoculars just make out objects with apparent magnitude of 9 under excellent viewing conditions. During daylight, it is just possible to make out objects as bright as Venus, and the crescent moon for a day or so around new moon, but you do have to know the exact place to look. The only other daylight visible objects have been comets, and Mercury (in transit across the face of the sun).

Interesting density though perhaps Iron/Nickel enriched with Iridium?

So no early sunday morning alarm call required then. Can keep its set for 4pm, thank god.

Edited March 29, 2012 by stewfox

[Polar Maritime]

Just a quik post as some maybe interested in this.

Near Earth Asteroids

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On March 29, 2012 there were 1287 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid

Date(UT)

Miss Distance

Mag.

Size

2012 FZ23

Mar 25

52.8 LD

--

1.2 km

2012 FU23

Mar 25

3.1 LD

--

14 m

2012 FP35

Mar 26

0.4 LD

--

12 m

2012 FS35

Mar 26

0.2 LD

--

4 m

2012 FV23

Mar 30

6.6 LD

--

36 m

2012 EG5

Apr 1

0.6 LD

--

60 m

2012 FW35

Apr 1

8.3 LD

--

23 m

2012 FS52

Apr 2

8.9 LD

--

47 m

2012 FA57

Apr 4

1 LD

--

28 m

1996 SK

Apr 18

67.2 LD

--

1.6 km

2007 HV4

Apr 19

4.8 LD

--

8 m

2011 WV134

Apr 28

38.6 LD

--

1.6 km

1992 JD

May 2

9.5 LD

--

43 m

2010 KK37

May 19

2.3 LD

--

31 m

4183 Cuno

May 20

47.4 LD

--

5.7 km

2002 VX94

May 26

72.8 LD

--

1.1 km

Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.

[Timini Cricket]

Interesting density though - perhaps Iron/Nickel enriched with Iridium?

Just done the sums - it would have to be about 17% iridium, if the nickel : iron ratio were about 1 : 4 - to give a density of 10.5 - that of silver.

It would be worth about £5Trillion, about five times more than if made of solid silver.

Now that it is on an earth-grazing orbit out to the asteroid belt, we may meet again...

[pyrotech]

Just a few hours to go now, not staying up all night to see it, will get up about 8am, hope the cloud thins overnight.

[Polar Maritime]

APRIL 1st ASTEROID FLYBY: Newly discovered near-Earth asteroid

2012 EG5 is flying past Earth today about halfway between Earth and the Moon. There's no danger of a collision. At closest approach on April 1st, the Dreamliner-sized space rock will be about 230,000 km from Earth. This morning in Brisbane, Australia, amateur astronomer Dennis Simmons photographed the incoming asteroid:

"On the eve of Earth Hour, whilst most of Australia was asleep, I was alone in my back garden, searching for the ghostly trail of 2012 EG5," says Simmons. "Alone but not lonely, my Celestron C9.25 and Tak EM200 mount were purring along, tracking 2012 EG5 as it flitted through the camera field only a few hours before its closest encounter. As the clock ticked over into 1st April, the estimated magnitude was approx 14.4 as it fast approached the Earth. This is to be no April’s Fool hoax – it’s for real!"

[pyrotech]

Hi all,

Well the asteroid was true enough, had to be as obviously people would check on it,but as for seeing it in daylight well that was an april fools joke. It certainly can not bee seen in daylight.

So where was this years clue to it being an Aprils fool?

Roal polif of Korean space agency

Yes rearrange the letters of the name !

Well another bit of harmless fun.

See you next year for the next one.