Record Setting Asteroid Flyby

[zorgon]

Record Setting Asteroid Flyby

Jan. 28, 2013:  Talk about a close shave. On Feb. 15th an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth only 17,200 miles above our planet's surface. There's no danger of a collision, but the space rock, designated 2012 DA14, has NASA's attention.

"This is a record-setting close approach," says Don Yeomans of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at JPL. "Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth."

[zorgon]

Near-Earth Asteroid 2012 DA14 to Miss Earth on February 15, 2013


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

Discovered by the LaSagra observatory in southern Spain, the small asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within about 3.5 Earth radii of the Earth's surface on February 15, 2013. Although its size is not well determined, this near-Earth asteroid is thought to be about 45 meters in diameter. Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass inside the geosynchronous satellite ring, located about 35,800 km above the equator. Its orbit about the sun can bring it no closer to the Earth's surface than 3.2 Earth radii on February 15, 2013. On this date, the asteroid will travel rapidly from the southern evening sky into the northern morning sky with its closest Earth approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility. About 4 minutes after its Earth close approach, there is a good chance it will pass into the Earth's shadow for about 18 minutes or so before reappearing from the eclipse. When traveling rapidly into the northern morning sky, 2012 DA14 will quickly fade in brightness.
   

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

[Somamech]

I saw this reported on my local news website tonight and thought, "How Quaint of Nasa to Depict anything close to Earth in Grey Scale once again"   

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

So, from the 6000+ satellites up there, it's going to hit none of them?
Good luck, NASA

I liked the bit about the Tunguska blast of 1908 being a 'meteor that exploded above the surface'

I hope someone films it, maybe it will be triangular...
"Oh look, another tile"

[Somamech]

Good point PWM!

I wish i was in the frame of mind to search how many possible objects orbiting it could possibly take out. 

I damn well hope we can get some footage of it from some keen Telescope Buffs

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

It's going to be difficult to film, they got that right
Apart from being dark, it will be moving fast, you would need to know exactly where it will appear in the sky & what direction it's going to be able to track it.

Even if i could track it with my 3 inch telescope, i could not film it, no camera adaptor as yet.
Also it will be around 4 PM here, so i won't see squat.....

So i'm hoping some real buffs will film it for us

I once tracked a jumbo jet crossing the moon one night, it was in view for about 1/3 of a second, to give you some idea

Go astronomers!

ETA: If it slams into a satellite or 2, that will be worth filming for sure

[astr0144]

I only found out about this on the TV yesterday.

I hope that they have calculated it correctly 
and that no Satellites come crashing down..


SPACE – Scientists are predicting that the asteroid 2012 DA14 has a good chance of colliding with earth in eleven months. Watch the skies in February 2013! According to RT, NASA has confirmed that the 60 meter (or 197 feet) asteroid, which was spotted by Spanish stargazers in February this year, has a good chance of colliding with earth. The scientists suggest confronting this asteroid with either big guns or, more strangely, with paint. The problem with either option is that there is no time to build a spaceship for the operation. A spaceship could either shoot the asteroid down or simply crash into it – this would either break it into pieces or throw it off course. NASA expert David Dunham suggested: "We could paint it." The paint would change the asteroid's ability to reflect sunlight, alter its spin and change its temperature. However, even taking the asteroid off course could be dangerous when it returns in 2056, according to Aleksandr Devaytkin the head of the observatory in Russia's Pulkovo, as told to Izvestia in Russia recently. The asteroid's closest approach to earth is scheduled for 15 February 2013, when they predict that the distance between it and earth will be under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). With the asteroid zooming that low, it will be too late to do anything with it besides trying to predict its final destination and the consequences of impact. However, NASA's David Dunham did say: "The asteroid may split into pieces entering the atmosphere. In this case, most parts of it will never reach the planet's surface." But theories are that if the entire asteroid did crash into the planet, the impact will be as hard as in the Tunguska blast, which in 1908 knocked down trees over a total area of 2,150 sq km (830 sq miles) in Siberia. So keep your head down and watch the skies. –Digital Journal

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/earth-will-likely-be-impacted-by-large-asteroid-february-15-16-2013/

[sky otter]

http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/index.html
NASA News Audio Live Streaming Thursday, Feb. 7: NASA Hosts Media Teleconference on Asteroid Earth Flyby

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 7, to discuss an asteroid 150-feet in diameter that will pass close, but safely, by Earth on Feb. 15. The flyby creates a unique opportunity for researchers to observe and learn more about asteroids.

The teleconference participants are:
--Lindley Johnson, program executive, Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
--Timothy Spahr, director, Minor Planet Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
--Donald Yeomans, manager, NEO Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
--Amy Mainzer, principal investigator, NEOWISE observatory, JPL
--Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator, Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer Asteroid Sample Return Mission, University of Arizona, Tucson

Reporters can obtain dial-in information by sending an email to Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov by noon Thursday. Requests must include the reporter's name, affiliation and telephone number.

Related images for the teleconference will be available here.


also

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

Related images for the teleconference will be available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/telecon20130207.html

For detailed information concerning the Earth flyby of 2012 DA14, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

A Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be broadcast from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. PST (9 p.m. to midnight EST) on Feb. 15. To view the feed and ask researchers questions via Twitter about the flyby, visit:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory invites you to watch live and chat about everything from Mars rovers to monitoring asteroids to cool cosmic discoveries. From the lab to the lecture hall, get information directly from scientists and engineers working on NASA's latest missions.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Chat Rules:
Free registration with Ustream is required to participate in the chat box. The chat is open to all guests from around the planet. From time to time the chat box may be disabled except for pre-arranged chat sessions. Please follow our code of conduct in the chat box:

• Be courteous.
• Use respectful language.
• Stay on topic.
• Protect your private information

[astr0144]

150-foot asteroid will buzz Earth, no need to duck

A further Article...


http://news.yahoo.com/150-foot-asteroid-buzz-earth-no-duck-192322385.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A 150-foot-wide asteroid will come remarkably close to Earth next week, even closer than high-flying communication and weather satellites. It will be the nearest known flyby for an object of this size.

But don't worry. Scientists promise the megarock will be at least 17,100 miles away when it zips past next Friday.

"No Earth impact is possible," Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Thursday.

Even the chance of an asteroid-satellite run-in is extremely remote, Yeomans and other scientists noted. A few hundred satellites orbit at 22,300 miles, higher than the asteroid's path, although operators are being warned about the incoming object for tracking purposes.

"No one has raised a red flag, nor will they," Yeomans told reporters. "I certainly don't anticipate any problems whatsoever."

Impossible to see with the naked eye, the asteroid is considered small as these things go. By contrast, the one that took out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was 6 miles wide.

Yet Asteroid 2012 DA14, as it's known for its discovery date, still could pack a wallop.

If it impacted Earth — which it won't, scientists were quick to add Thursday — it would release the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wipe out 750 square miles. That's what happened in Siberia in 1908, when forest land around the Tunguska River was flattened by a slightly smaller asteroid that exploded about five miles above ground.

The likelihood of something this size striking Earth is once in every 1,200 years. A close, harmless encounter like this is thought to occur every 40 years.

The bulk of the solar system's asteroids are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and remain stable there for billions of years. Some occasionally pop out, though, into Earth's neighborhood

The closest approach of this one will occur next Friday afternoon, Eastern time, over Indonesia.

There won't be much of a show. The asteroid will zip by at 17,400 mph. That's roughly eight times faster than a bullet from a high-speed rifle.

The asteroid will be invisible to the naked eye and even with binoculars and telescopes will appear as a small point of light. The prime viewing locations will be in Asia, Australia and eastern Europe.

Observers in the U.S. can pretty much forget it. Astronomers using NASA's deep-space antenna in California's Mojave Desert will have to wait eight hours after the closest approach to capture radar images.

Scientists welcome whatever pictures they get. The asteroid offers a unique opportunity to observe something this big and close, and any new knowledge will help if and when another killer asteroid is headed Earth's way.

The close approach also highlights the need to keep track of what's out there, if for no other reason than to protect the planet.

NASA's current count of near-Earth objects: just short of 10,000, the result of a concentrated effort for the past 15 years. That's thought to represent less than 10 percent of the objects out there.

No one has ruled out a serious Earth impact, although the probability is said to be extremely low.

"We don't have all the money in the world to do this kind of work" for tracking and potentially deflecting asteroids, said Lindley Johnson, an executive with the Near-Earth Object observations program in Washington.

Indeed, when asked about NASA's plans to send astronauts to an asteroid in the decades ahead, as outlined a few years ago by President Barack Obama, Johnson said the space agency is looking at a number of options for human explorations.

One of the more immediate steps, planned for 2016, is the launch of a spacecraft to fly to a much bigger asteroid, collect samples and return them to Earth in 2023.

As for Asteroid 2012 DA14 — discovered last year by astronomers in Spain — scientists suspect it's made of silicate rock, but aren't sure. Its shape and precise size also are mysteries.

What they do know with certainty:

"This object's orbit is so well known that there's no chance of a collision," Yeomans repeated during Thursday's news conference.

Its close approach, in fact, will alter its orbit around the sun in such a way as to keep it out of Earth's neighborhood, at least in the foreseeable future, Yeomans said.

Johnson anticipates no "sky is falling thing" related to next week's flyby.

He and other scientists urged journalists to keep the close encounter in perspective.

"Space rocks hit the Earth's atmosphere on a daily basis. Basketball-size objects come in daily. Volkswagen-size objects come in every couple of weeks," Yeomans said.

The grand total of stuff hitting the atmosphere every day? "About 100 tons," according to Yeoman, though most of it arrives harmlessly as sand-sized particles.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

University of Arizona: http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/

[zorgon]

"I was out collecting some rocks on the Moon on sunny day when.... OH CRAP!!!!"

[zorgon]

Russia To Blow Up Earth-Bound Asteroid

Russia's space agency chief said Wednesday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely.


When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.

Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.

NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000.

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/12/russia-to-blow-up-earthbound-a.php

[zorgon]

[thorfourwinds]

Asteroid 2012 DA14 to Safely Pass Earth

The flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 on Feb. 15, 2013,
will be the closest known approach to Earth for an object its size.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Asteroid and Comet Watch site

[thorfourwinds]

In Phenomenon: The Lost Archives -- Tunguska, the Russian Roswell, viewers investigate the destruction of 200 square miles of Siberian forest just prior to the Russian Revolution in 1908.

Was it, in fact, the impact of an asteroid that caused the explosion?

Or was it the crash site of a UFO?

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

Thanks Thor, that's exactly the point i wished to make, that whole Tunguska blast is still a mystery.
For a start, an asteroid that big (that had not already burned up) would be most likely to impact, & not 'explode in the air', in fact a search made years later never found that much evidence...

Asimov once posed it may have been a small black hole passing through the earth (highly improbable IMHO) and there is also the theory that it was caused by Tesla, something i don't dismiss out-of-hand because of the timeline

Oh, and thanks for the great pics, Zorgon, that made me feel a whole lot better

ETA: Dutch news carried a story this evening about a possible sat collision, it was a bag of laughs

ETA: The one thing that really bugs me about Asimov, brilliant man though he was, he never believed in the existence of aliens, that's why he never wrote about them....