Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy

Asteroid 2012 DA14 passing by today

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is passing by earth today. It’s closest approach (17,200 km) will occur at 2:25 p.m. ET over the Indian Ocean. Alan Boyle provides some info on how to watch it pass:  Watch asteroid 2012 DA14 buzz past harmlessly, via streaming video – Cosmic Log

Observers in that area will be able to see it with binoculars or small telescopes. NASA JPL has a live webcast here of a telescope view: USTREAM – NASA Follows Asteroid Flyby.

Here’s another webcast: The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0: Virtual Telescope’s WebTV

This video from “Samford Valley Observatory in Brisbane, Australia, shows the progress of asteroid 2012 DA14 across the night sky as it nears its closest approach”:

Astronomy, General

Large scale meteor shower over Russia causes injuries and ground damage

A dramatic meteor shower took place over the Urals area of Russia today with large fireballs  and smoke tails seen in the sky and loud explosions heard. (See video below.) Sightings were reported in the cities of Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and Tyumen. Widespread meteorite debris hitting the ground caused injuries to several hundred people  and damage to buildings (see second video below.)

Update: It was  just a cosmic coincidence. The meteoroid that caused the shower came from a much different orbit than asteroid 2012 DA14 and so they are not related: Astronomers: Russia’s Meteorite Is Not Related To Today’s Near-Earth Asteroid Fly-By – Popular Science.

From reading the articles today, some definitions are in order. A meteoroid is the rock traveling in space, a meteor is the bright flashy trail as it streaks through the atmosphere. and a meteorite is a chunk of a meteoroid that made it to the ground without vaporizing.

Astronomy, In Space Infrastructure

Animation of flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14

Here is an animation of the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. On February 15th,  the 45 meter diameter asteroid will pass just 27,700 kilometers (17,200 mi) above the Earth’s surface.

The simulation was made with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System program by Adrian Wenz of BINARY SPACE.  It shows the flyby from the viewpoint of the asteroid and includes the positions of a number of satellites.