Asteroid DA14

[smokingman]

Nasa has this listed as a 45 meter asteroid.On space weather it is listed as 2012 DA14 and is listed as a near earth object.On February 15,2012 it will pass earth.The orbit is close at .09 LD or 17,000 miles,putting it between the earth than many orbiting satellites.

Near-Earth Asteroid 2012 DA14 to Miss Earth on February 15, 2013
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

Video by JPL
The video is very interesting to watch and only 1 minute 12 seconds long.Two thumbs up to the guys over at JPL for the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YTmS6U8WM&feature=player_embedded

 

[CathyInBlue]

So, it's not even in the ecliptic? Is it even likely to have another near-Earth encounter?

 

[HavokCycle]

i had a dream earlier this week about a meteor impact.

 

[beararms1776]

Closer than some satellites. To pass within 5x the length of the U.S., (from east to west coast) I would say that is extremely close.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Granted, 40 m of rock travelling at those speeds would produce some damn fine fireworks, but being that it will miss us in February, and that it's not orbitting within the ecliptic, what are the chances of a second close encounter?

 

[ZombieApocolypse]

I wonder what would be left after some of it burned up in our atmosphere. It's amazing living in a time where we can tell that an asteroid will be travelling so close and yet miss us. Pretty cool vid

 

[smokingman]

Granted, 40 m of rock travelling at those speeds would produce some damn fine fireworks, but being that it will miss us in February, and that it's not orbitting within the ecliptic, what are the chances of a second close encounter?

It is an ecliptic orbit,and will pass us again sometime in 2020. They are not sure when or how close do to orbit changes this pass.
Asteroid to pass within moon's distance February 15, 2013 | Space | EarthSky

 

[HavokCycle]

some quick math based off the info below, were it to hit, it'd create approximately a crater somewhere roughly between 1000 and 500km, so, most the eastern seaboard.
Solar System Fluff

 

[CathyInBlue]

2012 DA14's orbital inclination is 10 1/3° to the ecliptic. By comparison, the planet with the weirdest orbit, Neptune, only has an inclination of 1 3/4° to the ecliptic.

According to Wikipedia, if the 45 meter rock hit, it would be equivalent to 2.4 MT. Tunguska was estimated at 3-20 MT, so hardly catastrophic, depending on location.

 

[Lucas156]

What if the calculations are just a little off

 

[netsecurity]

What a perfect time to test our star wars laser destroyer...

 

[smokingman]

2012 DA14's orbital inclination is 10 1/3° to the ecliptic. By comparison, the planet with the weirdest orbit, Neptune, only has an inclination of 1 3/4° to the ecliptic.

According to Wikipedia, if the 45 meter rock hit, it would be equivalent to 2.4 MT. Tunguska was estimated at 3-20 MT, so hardly catastrophic, depending on location.

I think they are still trying to nail down the orbit,they are sure it will not impact at this point(as sure as the science can be).Most of what NASA or ESA have put out regarding orbit all say estimated.Mind you they have had less than 9 months of data since the discovery and it was not until the French team figured how close it could be that NASA even started to look at it.

Even NASA is unsure of the actual size at this point.I read up a little and the French team who found it originally estimated it at 115M,and later revised it to 78 meters.They are waiting for this pass to actually get a better idea on the size,right now all they have are rough estimates.

Time will tell.