No, The Recent Russian Meteor Shower Is Not Related To The Asteroid That Flys By Earth Tonight
usatoday.comA Russian meteor blast that has reportedly injured more than 500 people appears unconnected to the flyby Friday of an asteroid passing close to Earth, according to astronomers.
The 13-story-size asteroid, 2012 DA14, passes within 17,100 miles of Earth around 2:24 p.m. ET on Friday before heading off into space. The Russian meteor, likely about the size of a sports utility vehicle and weighing perhaps 11 tons, struck Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, about 900 miles east of Moscow late Thursday, according to news reports.
“The Earth travels about a million miles in a day and these are two events separated by almost 24 hours, so it is unlikely they are connected,” says asteroid expert Richard Binzel of MIT. Meteors the size of the Russian one hit Earth every few years, Binzel says, but land near inhabited places much less often. “We just have the incredible coincidence of this happening just before the asteroid flies by,” Binzel says.
Further, the Russian meteor landed in the Northern hemisphere while Asteroid 2012 DA14 is approaching from the direction of the South Pole, arguing against a connection. The damage in Chelyabinsk, reportedly broken windows, was caused by the air pressure wave created when the meteor zoomed into the Earth’s atmosphere at perhaps 33,000 mph.
“It’s nice of Nature to give us the full spectrum of possibilities,” Binzel says. Astronomers will want to recover whatever pieces of the Russian meteor remain for study in the lab. The space rocks are thought to be leftovers from the era of the Earth’s formation.
We're less than one hour away from the asteroid fly-by! Here's more info about the close call:
reuters.comA newly discovered asteroid about half the size of a football field will pass nearer to Earth than any other known object of its size on Friday, giving scientists a rare opportunity for close-up observations without launching a probe.
At its closest approach, which will occur at 2:24 p.m. EST/1924 GMT, the asteroid will pass about 17,200 miles (27,520 km) above the planet traveling at 8 miles (13 km) per second, bringing it nearer than the networks of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.
Although Asteroid 2012 DA14 is the largest known object of its size to pass this close, scientists say there is no chance of an impact, this week or in the foreseeable future.
Currently, DA14 matches Earth’s year-long orbit around the sun, but after Friday’s encounter its flight path will change, said astronomer Donald Yeomans, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“The close approach will perturb its orbit so that actually instead of having an orbital period of one year, it’ll lose a couple of months,” Yeomans said. “The Earth is going to put this one in an orbit that is considerably safer,” he said.
The non-profit Space Data Association, which tracks satellites for potential collisions, analyzed the asteroid’s projected path and determined no spacecraft would be in its way.
“There is no reason to believe that this asteroid poses a threat to any satellites in Earth orbit,” Space Data operations manager T.S. Kelso said in a statement.
For scientists, DA14 presents a rare, albeit short, opportunity to study an asteroid close-up. In addition to trying to determine what minerals it contains, which is of potential commercial interest as well as scientific, astronomers want to learn more about the asteroid’s spin rate. The information not only will be useful to plotting DA14’s future visits but could help engineers develop techniques to thwart more threatening asteroids.
Even in areas that will be dark during DA14’s pass by Earth, the asteroid is too dim to be spotted without a telescope or binoculars. NASA plans a half-hour broadcast beginning at 2 p.m. EST/1900 GMT on NASA Television and on its website which will include near real-time views of the asteroid from observatories in Australia, weather permitting.
The space camera, Slooh.com, will incorporate several live feeds, including views from the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, in a webcast beginning Friday at 9 p.m. EST/0200 GMT. (Editing by David Adams and Cynthia Osterman)
Asteroid 2012 DA14 makes its closest approach to Earth at 2:25 p.m. ET Friday, and the world’s astronomers have been on the lookout for it. Take a look at this sequence of images, sent by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from the Faulkes Telescope South, in Siding Springs, Australia:
Image credit: LCOGT/Faulkes via NASA/JPL
NASA will also be covering the asteroid fly-by:
Asteroid 2012 DA14 makes its closest approach to Earth at 2:25 p.m. ET Friday, and the world’s astronomers have been on the lookout for it. Take a look at this sequence of images, sent by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from the Faulkes Telescope South, in Siding Springs, Australia:
Image credit: LCOGT/Faulkes via NASA/JPL
