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record-setting asteroid flyby presented

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by science at NASA talk about a close

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shave on februari 15th an asteroid about

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half the size of a football field will

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fly pastor only seventeen thousand two

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hundred miles above our planet's surface

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there's no danger of a collision but the

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space rock designated 2012 da14 has

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NASA's attention this is a

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record-setting close approach says Don

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Yeomans of NASA's near-earth object

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observation program at JPL since regular

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sky surveys began in the 1990s we've

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never seen an object this big get so

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close to Earth Earth's neighborhood is

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littered with asteroids of all shapes

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and sizes ranging from fragments the

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size of beach balls to mountainous rocks

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many kilometers wide many of these

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objects hail from the asteroid belt

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while others may be corpses of long-dead

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burnt out comments NASA's near-earth

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object observation program helps find

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and keep track of them especially the

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ones that come close to our planet 2012

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da14 is a fairly typical near-earth

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asteroid it measures some 50 meters wide

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neither very large nor very small and is

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probably made of stone as opposed to ice

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or metal Yeomans estimates that an

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asteroid like 2012 da14 flies past earth

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on average every 40 years yet actually

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strikes our planet only every 1,200

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years or so the impact of a 50 meter

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asteroid is not cataclysmic unless you

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happen to be near it yeomans points out

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that a similar-sized object formed the

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mile wide meteor crater in Arizona when

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it struck about 50,000 years ago that

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asteroid was made of iron he says which

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made it an especially potent impactor

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the area was devastated for over 50

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miles around also in 1908 something

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about the size of 2012 da14 exploded in

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the atmosphere above Siberia leveling

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hundreds of square miles

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of forest researchers are still studying

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the Tunguska event for clues to the

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impacting object 2012 da14 will

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definitely not hit earth emphasizes

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Yeomans the orbit of the asteroid is

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known well enough to rule out an impact

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even so it will come interestingly close

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NASA radar will be monitoring the space

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rock as it approaches earth closer than

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many man-made satellites Yeomans says

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the asteroid will thread the gap between

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low-earth orbit where the International

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Space Station and many Earth observation

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satellites are located and the higher

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belt of geosynchronous satellites which

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provide weather data and

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telecommunications the odds of an impact

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with a satellite or extremely remote he

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says almost nothing orbits where da14

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will pass the earth NASA's Goldstone

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radar in the Mojave Desert is scheduled

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to ping 2012 da14 almost every day from

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february's 16th through 20th the echoes

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will not only pinpoint the orbit of the

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asteroid allowing researchers to better

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predict future encounters but also

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reveal physical characteristics such as

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size spin and reflectivity a key outcome

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of the observing campaign will be a 3d

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radar map showing the space rock from

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all sides during the hours around

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closest approach the asteroid will

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brighten until it resembles a star of

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8th magnitude theoretically that's an

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easy target for backyard telescopes the

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problem points out Yeomans is speed the

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asteroid will be racing across the sky

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moving almost a full degree or twice the

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width of the full moon every minute

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that's going to be hard to track only

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the most experienced amateur astronomers

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are likely to succeed those who do might

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experience a tiny chill when they look

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at their images that really was a close

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