Tag Archives: asteroid flyby

9/07 Asteroid Flyby

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WEEKEND ASTEROID FLYBY: This Sunday, a house-sized asteroid named “2014 RC” will fly through the Earth-Moon system almost inside the orbit of geosynchronous satellites. At closest approach, Sept. 7th at 18:18 UTC, the 20-meter-wide space rock will pass just 40,000 km over New Zealand. This diagram from NASA shows the geometry of the encounter:

There is no danger of a collision with Earth.

Asteroid 2014 RC was discovered on the night of August 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and independently detected the next night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of Haleakalā on Maui, Hawaii.  Follow-up observations quickly confirmed the orbit of 2014 RC: it comes from just beyond the orbit of Mars.

The close appproach of this space rock offers researchers an opportunity for point-blank studies of a near-Earth asteroid. Even amateur astronomers will be able to track it. Around the time of closest approach, it will brighten to magnitude +11.5 as it zips through the constellation Pisces. This means it will be invisible to the naked eye but a relatively easy target for backyard telescopes equipped with CCD cameras

fr/spaceweather.com

Binary Asteroid Fly-by 5/31

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Massive asteroid with moon to pass Earth today

This NASA illustration shows the orbit of asteroid 1998 QE2
This NASA illustration shows the orbit of asteroid 1998 QE2. The asteroid, which is nearly two miles (three kilometers) wide, is set to pass by Earth Friday with no risk of impact, offering scientists a rare chance to study a massive flying object with its own moon.
An asteroid nearly two miles (three kilometers) wide is set to pass by Earth Friday with no risk of impact, offering scientists a rare chance to study a massive flying object with its own moon.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make its closest approach to Earth at 4:59 pm (20:59 GMT), at a distance of 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon, the said.

“This is the closest approach the asteroid will make to Earth for at least the next two centuries,” NASA said.

The asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, but radar astronomers are already studying it with complementary imaging telescopes in California and Puerto Rico and will continue to analyze it until June 9.

On Thursday, NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) antenna at Goldstone, California reported that the asteroid, first discovered in 1998, also appears to have its own moon.

The huge flying object is known as a binary asteroid, and is circled by a satellite, or moon, that is about 2,000 feet (600 meters) wide, NASA said.

Scientists hope that measurements gathered as the asteroid approaches will help space agencies track other asteroids, including those that might impact the Earth, and calculate their orbits further in advance.

“ of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than if weren’t available,” NASA said.

The asteroid-moon duo is in rare company—NASA says about 16 percent of asteroids that are 655 feet (200 meters) or larger are binary or triple systems.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-massive-asteroid-moon-earth-today.html#jCp

NASA Denies Relation of Meteor to Asteroid Flyby

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RUSSIAN METEOR INJURES HUNDREDS: Ths morning, a meteor exploded in the daytime skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia. According to CNN, hundreds of people were injured, mainly from the glass fragments of windows shattered by shock waves from the explosion. It is natural to wonder if this event has any connection to today’s record-setting flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. NASA has issued the following statement:

“The trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14’s trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.”

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