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the asteroid

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2012 da14 flying by the earth friday

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afternoon at 2 30 east coast time flies

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so far away more than 17 000 miles from

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the earth that no one on earth is in

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danger nor will any of our satellites be

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nasa has an extensive program that

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surveys the skies using ground-based

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telescopes and space-based telescopes to

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look for near-earth objects

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and we find these all the time and we

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study them we look at their orbits and

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we determine if they're potentially

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the planetary scientists are really

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excited about this passage of da14

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by the earth because as it flies by

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we're going to use our radars to bounce

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radio waves off this asteroid watch it

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spin

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look at the reflections and understand

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its size its shape and perhaps even a

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near earth objects that nasa has been

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studying do fly close to the earth

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this particular one is flying fairly

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close and once again it's we're at a

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very safe distance and allows us to

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study it in greater detail but this

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happens

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nasa is currently

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studying about 9000 of these near-earth

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asteroids about 1 800 of them are are

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fairly large and those are very of very

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particular interest to us we study their

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orbital motions and we understand where

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they'll be extrapolated well in it well

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the near-earth objects these asteroids

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that come by us that we see today

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actually originate in the asteroid belt

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we have a mission called dawn that's

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been in the asteroid belt now more than

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a year studying some of the largest

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asteroids around

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these are important objects because they

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are fundamental building blocks of

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planets so by studying asteroids we see

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what the early composition and the early

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accretion

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material of our early solar system that

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there's a very exciting event coming up

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uh today 2012 da14 is going to do a

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close flyby to the earth at a distance

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of about 17 000 miles the good news is

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that the earth is safe the international

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space station is safe and all of our

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nasa has an extensive near-earth

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observation program that's been scanning

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the skies for well over a decade to

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catalog the most potentially hazardous

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asteroids and to assess their impact

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threat this has been a phenomenally

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successful program and we've retired the

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majority of risk associated with an

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the flyby of asteroid 2012 da14 is a

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historic event never before in human

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history have we been able to see an

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object come this close of this size

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this is an attribute to uh the

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phenomenal success of our asteroid

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observation programs we've been scanning

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the skies for well over a decade to

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catalog these objects we're able to

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predict their orbits well into the