Completely unrelated to the event over Russia this morning, asteroid 2012 DA14 will do an extremely close flyby of Earth around 2:25pm EST. 2012 DA14 was discovered a year ago and orbits the sun at almost the same distance we do, only its orbit is inclined by ~11 degrees with respect to ours. This afternoon, it will be traveling from below our orbital plane to above it as it passes within 17,000 miles of us. As the video says, that's closer than our geosynchronous satellites, which is pretty darn close. However, and I can't stress this enough, IT WILL NOT HIT US.
We know this because NASA's Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program has been tracking it since its discovery and has determined its orbit with enough certainty to rule out any chance of impact. In fact, 2012 DA14's close approach today will actually alter its orbit by moving it inside, or closer to the Sun, than ours.
Unfortunately, 2012 DA14 will make its closest approach over the Indian Ocean, so it won't be visible from the U.S., but it will be live-streamed by several observatories around the world. NASA also has an informative collection of graphics and videos on the flyby here.
The take away from today's encounter with not one but two space rocks is that near earth objects pose a real threat to us. Asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 are predicted to hit Earth once every 1,200 years, but statistically they pass this close to Earth every half-century or so. In general, asteroids on scales smaller than this are notoriously difficult to detect as they are dark, rocky bodies that don't emit any light and only reflect a fraction of the light that hits them. It's like if someone threw a handful of sand in a darkened room and you tried to find every piece with only a small flashlight. Luckily NASA has a network of "flashlights" on the look-out, but today should serve as a reminder that there are some objects that will still escape our detection. While we still don't know the exact size of this morning's Russian meteor, Alan Boyle has a great list of past meteor impacts for comparison to 2012 DA14. If you're feeling macabre, Purdue University has a site where you can calculate the impact of a given meteor. And as always, Phil Plait has the answers to all your burning questions.
At this point, it's a numbers game for when we find the next big one headed our way. May the odds be ever in our favor.
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Where's Paul Revere when you need him? The British are coming, the British are coming! Where could this bomb be coming from, Iran? We better start practicing on our Star Wars game.
Senator Graham wants the White House phone logs, starting at 2:25 this afternoon! Who will the President call about this? And why wasn't I notified?
A space prospecting company estimates that the value of mineral resources from this small asteroid alone is worth $179 billion. That's a whole lot of cash that we are watching fly by, because it is more important to fund tax cuts to billionaires than it is to work on ways to find and mine the asteroids.
Listen to this clown!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tc_7SxBtb2k#!
It's really a shame that it doesn't hit Sam Brownback..
Too many other people would be killed/hurt. Getting rid of Sam is not worth anyone else's life or health.
That youtube guy is just wierd.
17,200 miles is about twice the diameter of the Earth. That is pretty close.
Tagunsa, Siberia, Russia was still a mystery the last time I heard about it. Did they reach a consensus about it now?
There is still a healthy debate over whether it was a small comet or an asteroid, but lately the asteroid origin is gaining favor. Whatever it was, it was definitely an airburst, just like the object that exploded over Chelyabinsk.
Not ALL ancient things went extinct after the last really big impact. We still do have Conservative philosophies.
But I do find it funny that scientists tell us not to be worried about this one and another one hits earth.
Hahaha!
I see Russian Liberal Dems are just as stupid as US Liberal Dems!
http://en.apa.az/news/187943
There are times I think it would be a good thing if something like this did happen, but with something big enough to do us in like the dinosaurs, so nature can try again after the failed experiment with biological intelligence that can foresee the results of its actions and modify its behavior to optimize the outcome. Instead, nature got the exact opposite.
I don't think nature/the nature of things wants to be that kind!
Contrary to this pleasant JPLNews video, almost all GNSSs (Global Navigation Satellite System) orbits are between 11,000 and 15,000 miles from Earth's surface, with revolutions of 12 hrs; not at 22,000 miles as suggested. This includes United States' "GPS", Russia's "GLONASS", European Union's "Galileo", and China's "COMPASS". They are NOT in geosynchronous orbits, returning to the same spot in the sky at the same time each day. The exceptions, as far as I am aware, are a handful of COMPASS GSO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) geosynchronous satellites.
Private communication feed satellites are more likely to be geosynchronous (HELLO CABLE TV!), to the maximum MEO (medium Earth orbit) of 22,000 miles, the distance equal to a single orbital revolution per day. These are often in stationary orbits to the Earth's rotation.
Private communications also favor LEO (low Earth orbit) constellations, at approx 250 miles. An example would be Globalstar, supporting satellite phone capability to remote areas.
Fortunately, DA14 is in an orbit that is out-of-plane of the earth's orbit. It will come in from the south and exit to the north, therefore spending very little time in a realm where satellites would be vulnerable to a collision. Despite what movies show us, space is still pretty empty, even around the earth. It will be interesting to see how earth's gravity changes the orbit of DA14 after its close encounter, but it seems likely that this will be the last we ever see of it.
Yep, no satellite worries. There it goes: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16966984-it-aint-over-yet-watch-asteroid-2012-da14-fade-out-via-streaming-video?lite
I'm not worried about any speeding asteroid approaching at an acute angle. We have Paintball Defense! http://www.space.com/18248-paintballs-asteroid-impact-deflection-video.html