Asteroid ( Archived) (7)

Next 21 Feb. 2014 at 11:08 UT, the Potentially Hazardous asteroid 1995CR (recently recovered), with a diameter of about 160 meters, will reach a minimum distance from the Earth of less than 3 millions of km (7.6 times the mean distance of the Moon). At Virtual Telescope we scheduled an online observing session to show it live.

Last night we spotted it while approaching us, lost in the bright glare of an almost full Moon.

Above is an image, coming from the average three different exposures, each integrated for 120-seconds. They were remotely collected by Gianluca Masi using the Planewave 17 robotic unit. The telescope was tracking the apparent motion of the target, which looks as a point of light, with stars sliding on the background.

OK got it Chief

You say it "Missed Us BY That Much"

It most likely wont be that big...just a Hemorrhoid

Scientists estimate that 2000 EM26 is around 885 feet (270 meters) in diameter, and it is whizzing through the solar system at a break-neck 27,000 mph (12.37km/s), according to Slooh. During its closest approach, the asteroid will fly about 8.8 lunar distances from Earth.

One year ago, on February 15, 2013, the world witnessed two amazing events – one expected and the other not. Astronomers anticipated the arrival of super-close asteroid 2012 DA14 – a 40,000-ton space rock, 98 ft (30 m) in diameter, due to miss Earth by a measly 17,200 miles (27,680 km) – closer even than our geosynchronous satellites.

In fact, NEA 2012 DA14 was the closest object of such size to fly past Earth in our lifetimes. Slooh successfully tracked DA14 live from its Canary Island observatory using special imaging techniques.

On that same day, however, something else unexpectedly tore through the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, damaging thousands of houses, breaking innumerable windows, and causing injuries from broken glass.

This object, later discovered to be an asteroid, was 65 ft (20 m) in diameter and exploded 18 miles above Siberia releasing the equivalent energy of more than 20 atomic bombs (approximately 460 kilotons of TNT).

While analysts continue to debate the significance of the event, many believe the residents of Chelyabinsk were extremely lucky to escape this celestial encounter with no loss of life. To commemorate the February 15 event, the Russian government announced that ten gold medals for winners on February 15th at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics will be embedded with Chelyabinsk meteor fragments.


Euronews.