Hey Space Placers!
With asteroid mining in the news recently - see my blog of January 27, another asteroid is in the news as 2012 DA 14 will set a new record for the largest asteroid to pass closest to us on February 15, 2013.
The 150 foot space rock will pass ONLY 17,200 miles above the surface of our planet. That dear Space Placers is BELOW the orbit of our geosynchronous robot satellites! It is a close shave by a big rock but there is NO DANGER of a collision.
A rock this size is believed to have created Meteor Crater in Arizona (the impactor was made of iron) 50,000 years ago and was also the size of the 1908 Tunguska object which resulted in a multi-megaton air blast several miles above the Siberian wilderness. Earth is hit by such an object on average every 1200 years.
Ground based radars will observed 2012 DA 14 when it makes it close approach and get images and good data to learn more about the record setting space rock.
It will move very quickly across our sky but I and countless others will be trying to get a picture of this "one for the history books" space rocks.
I'll have more on this as the data results come in but Read More About It: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/28jan_2012da/
Sky Guy in VA
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