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record-setting asteroid flood i presented by science at nasa
talk about a close either
on february fifteenth an asteroid about half the size of a football field will
fly pastor only seventeen thousand two hundred miles above our planet's surface
there is no danger of a collision but the space rock
designated two thousand twelve d a fourteen
has masses attention
this is a record-setting first approached says don yeoman's announces
near earns object observation program at j_p_l_
since regular sky surveys began in the nineteen nineties we've never seen an
object is to get so close to her
earth's neighborhood is littered with asteroids of all shapes and sizes
ranging from fragments the size of beach balls to mountainous rocks many
kilometers wide
many of these objects hail from the asteroid belt
well others maybe corpses of long dead burnt-out comments
masses near earth object observation program helps find and keep track of
them especially the ones that come close to our planet
two thousand twelve d eight fourteen is a fairly typical near earth asteroid
it measures some fifty meters wide neither very large nor very small
and is probably made of stone as opposed to thanks
or metal
yemen's estimates that on asteroid like two thousand twelve d eight fourteen
flies pastor of on average every forty years
actually starts at planet only every twelve hundred years or so
the impact a fifty meter past rate is not cataclysmic
unless you happen to be near it
yemen's point out that a similar sized object formed a mile wide mere crater in
arizona when it struck about fifty thousand years ago
masquerade is made of iron he says which made it an especially code and impact ur
the area was devastated for over fifty miles around
also in nineteen oh eight something about the size of two thousand county a
fourteen exploded in the atmosphere about siberia leveling hundreds of
square miles of poorest
researchers are still studying the tongas can enter for clues to the
impacting object
two thousand twelve d a fourteen but definitely not hit earth and two sizes
yemen's
it orbit of the asteroid is known well enough to rule out an impact
even so it will come interestingly cloak ps
nasa radar will be monitoring the space rock as it approaches earth closer than
many man-made satellites
youngman says the asteroid befriend a gap between low earth orbit
where the international space station and many early conservation satellites
are located
and the higher delta geo synchronised satellites which provide weather data
and telecommunications
the odds of an impact with a satellite are extremely remote he says
almost nothing orbits greedy a fourteen will pass the earth
nasons goldstone radar in the mojave desert is scheduled to came two thousand
twelve d eight fourteen
almost every day from february sixteen through twenty f
the echoes will not only ten point the orbit of the asteroid allowing
researchers to better predict future encounters
but also reveal physical characteristics set-asides skin
and reflectivity
eki outcome of the observing campaign
will be a three-d_ radar map showing the space rock from all sides
during the hours around closest approach e asteroid will break until it resembles
a started eight magnitude
theoretically that's in the easy target for backyard telescopes
the problem planes argument is speed
the asteroid will be racing across the sky and moving almost a full degree
or twice the width of the four men every minute
that's going to be hard to track
only the most experienced amateur astronomers are likely to succeed
those who do might experience a tiny children they look at their images
that really was a close shave
for more news about near earth asteroid and other perils visit science
dot nasa dot ca