Sometimes it’s challenging to visualize a space object on a human scale. Artist Michael Carroll created this image size comparison of 2012DA14 (on the left) and the Chelyabinsk meteroid (on the right) shown here give us a more understandable representation of how large the recent NEOs that have passed Earth have been.
You can read more about the size of DA14 from this JPL press release.
About the artist:
Michael Carroll is a science journalist and astronomical artist, with over twenty books in print. He has written articles for such magazines as Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Popular Science, Asimov’s, Analog, Clubhouse, Odyssey, Sea Frontiers, and Artists magazines. His latest book is Drifting on Alien Winds. It explores the weather of other planets and moons. Other recent books include Alien Volcanoes (Johns Hopkins University Press), The Seventh Landing (Springer), and Space Art (Random House). His next book, Alien Seas, is slated for a fall 2013 release.
Carroll is a Fellow and founding member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists. He has done work for Lockheed/Martin, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His art has appeared in several hundred magazines throughout the world, including AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, TIME, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SKY & TELESCOPE, and others. One of his original paintings flew aboard MIR, and another is on the surface of Mars—in digital form—aboard the Phoenix spacecraft. He is the recipient of the Lucien Rudaux award for lifetime achievement in the astronomical arts, and the Jonathan Eberhart award for science feature writing. You can see more of his art at his website: http://stock-space-images.com
