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| Asteroid image courtesy of NASA |
The world is not going to end on Friday!
The asteroid, half the size of a football field will miss impact by 20,000 miles.
I'm safe. You are safe. And just like 65 million years ago, dinosaurs are safe.
Here are facts from Space.com and the science geeks at NASA.
(Click on the dark brown links for more detail)
(Click on the dark brown links for more detail)
This Friday (Feb. 15), asteroid 2012 DA14 will fly by Earth in an unprecedented close approach. The event marks the closest-ever known approach by such a large
near-Earth asteroid, and gives scientists a rare chance to take a good look at a space
rock as it whizzes by Earth To prepare for the historic event, here are some frequently
asked questions about asteroid 2012 DA14, how it's monitored and what to
expect during the flyby.
And the folks from LiveScience add: Friday's flyby is record-breaking;
skywatchers have never before recorded an asteroid of this size passing so close to Earth.
skywatchers have never before recorded an asteroid of this size passing so close to Earth.
Unrecorded
close calls are another story.
In 1908, a hunk of space rock about
150
feet in diameter screamed into the atmosphere near the
Tunguska
River in Siberia. The asteroid or comet fragment the
size of our White House broke
up explosively in the atmosphere, leveling more than 800 square miles of forest.
up explosively in the atmosphere, leveling more than 800 square miles of forest.
[The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever] Fortunately, the Tunguska Event happened in an
extremely remote area,
with the nearest human eyewitnesses miles away.
But a rock like the one that caused the Tunguska Event, or like the one that will zip
by Earth Friday, could level Washington D.C., and its suburbs, said Mark Boslough,
a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, who has used computer
modeling to recreate the Tunguska impact.
But a rock like the one that caused the Tunguska Event, or like the one that will zip
by Earth Friday, could level Washington D.C., and its suburbs, said Mark Boslough,
a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, who has used computer
modeling to recreate the Tunguska impact.
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| P.S. The dinosaurs forgot to duck 65 million years ago! |
Final word: Near Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will have a very close pass near Earth on
February 15, 2013. It will sweep by approximately 20,000 miles from Earth.
That is closer than the moon’s orbit and closer than satellites.
It will not strike our planet.
It may spawn a media frenzy!
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