Asteroid Comes Closer to Earth
A small asteroid, 45 meters in diameter will come closer to us as it passes Earth. It will come as close as 27700 kilometers, almost one-tenth of the distance between Earth and Moon. With estimated weight of 130000 metric tons, and mare 45 meter in diameter, this asteroid named “Asteroid 1012 DA14” is considered a small one.
NASA had told that there is no danger to the planet at all, but astronomers all around the world are getting ready to observe this magnificent event on February 15, 2013.
According to NASA, these kinds of close flybys of asteroids happens all the time, and last year alone more than 20 asteroids have come between Earth and Moon, but they were very small in size, such as few meters in diameter.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass us at 7.8 Km/s speed, way faster than the speedy bullet and more than 20 times the speed of sound.
For many scientist and astronomers, this is a good opportunity to observe the asteroid and its nature. This same Asteroid DA14 will come again close to Earth on 2046. NASA also sending a spacecraft in 2016 to study another asteroid and bring back a sample from it to Earth to further study.