Image: NASA
In a few weeks Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be in our neighborhood. We have received numerous inquires on this momentous event and have put together the following FAQ for you. Now you can impress your friends with all this information!
What is Asteroid 2012 DA14 and how close will it come to Earth? Asteroid 2012 DA14 (DA14), discovered in February 2012, is scheduled to fly past Earth on February 15, 2013. While it will not impact the Earth, it will fly just 17,000 miles above the Earth’s surface at about five miles per second.
What is known about DA14? How big is it? DA14 is about 160 feet in diameter, making it about the same size as an office building. Two famous asteroid impact sites on Earth were caused by asteroids about the same size (or even a bit smaller) than DA14. Both Meteor Crater in Arizona and the impact in Tunguska, Siberia on June 30, 1908 were caused by roughly 140-foot asteroids. The blast wave from the Tunguska asteroid flattened about 1000 square miles of forest.
How long ago did we learn of DA14 and its impending close flyby of Earth? DA14 was discovered on February 13, 2012, just one year in advance of its close flyby of Earth. Had it been on a collision course with Earth on February 15, 2013, there would not have been enough time to prepare a mission to deflect it. While we would have been able to accurately predict its impact location on Earth, our only possible response would have been to evacuate the area and hope for the best.
How many asteroids similar to DA14 or larger could threaten Earth? There are roughly a million asteroids larger than DA-14 whose orbits cross Earth’s orbit. We know this because we have only discovered about ten thousand of these asteroids, and we know that current telescopes have only effectively surveyed about one percent of the volume of space in which these asteroids orbit. Therefore we have only discovered about one percent of these asteroids!
Why is B612’s Sentinel Space Telescope so important? Sentinel is designed to find and track Near Earth Asteroids—over 90% of the ones larger than 400 feet in diameter—and at least 50% of those 200 feet in diameter. Sentinel will track these asteroids and give us decades of advance warning if any of them will collide with Earth. This is enough warning that we will be able to deflect an impending impact using well developed concepts like kinetic impactors and gravity tractors. Sentinel will enable us to protect the Earth by preventing future asteroid impacts.
Even though the risk of collision from DA14 is extremely low, is there anything that could raise or change the risk of impact for future generations? DA14’s encounter with the Earth is so close that the asteroid’s orbit will be significantly changed—from an asteroid “year” of 366 days to only 317 days. The path will also be changed substantially, but we can calculate what that change will be. DA14 will pass at large distances from the Earth every six to seven years, with the next close approach in February 2047.
Will we be able to study the DA14 asteroid as it passes the Earth? What might we hope to learn about it? The passage of an asteroid at such a small distance from the Earth gives astronomers an unusual opportunity to study it in detail. DA14 will be quite bright, and while probably not visible to the unaided eye, it will be easily detectable with binoculars. Telescopes will be able to collect a lot of information on the size, shape, rotation and composition of DA-14. Radar observations will give us very precise measurements of its orbital track, which will improve our knowledge of its future movements.
Could the DA14 asteroid collide with a GEO satellite and disrupt service? While the trajectory of DA14 brings it closer to the Earth than the communications satellites which orbit at about 21,000 miles overhead, its trajectory as it comes close to Earth is not near the orbits of the geosynchronous satellites. So there is no risk of collision or disruption in service.
Hello,
I would like to comment. I am a in the U.S. military, and I like to notify my soldiers of upcoming events in the world and … outside as well if it effects us. I felt it neccessary to notify my soldiers of the coming meteor, because of its closeness. The result of our conversation we had after notification was a question posed. What is there some sort of force that will effect the satellite communications or the earth & moon. We live in Europe and we pass and are passed on the Auto bahn almost daily when driving. There is a force that you feel when a vehicle is driving faster than you are in the next lane over. We were wondering if you knew of any similar effects on the earth possibly if DA14 is to pass by, will it effect us the same way?
We would also like to thank you for all the knowledge and information you posted on DA14, knowledge truly is power, and i feel if we all were to continuously receive information like this it would stop wide spread panics like the one of all the hoax’s on nibiru.
V/r,
Lonnie
USA, SGT
The force you have experienced in Auto Bahn when you pass or you are passed by some one is purely because of Aerodynamics. However in the case of DA14 it will be just gravity. DA14 is so small compared to Earth and Moon that its gravity is infinitesimally small compared to Earth’s and Moon’s gravity forces. On the contrary, it is the DA14′s orbit around that Sun which will be radically altered by Earth’s (to some extent Moon’s) as it pass by earth. In fact you can see the orbit of DA14 bends towards Earth in the figure at the top of this article.
To put the small gravity of DA14 in to perspective. Consider, Phobos, one of the two Moons of Mars, whose mean radius is around 11.2 Km (compare to DA14′s 0.021336 Km mean radius). Phobos gravity is just 0.019-0.085% that of Earth’s 9.8 m/s^2, thus DA14′s gravity is definitely negligible!
Thank you Lisa & Astro, for your reply to me and my soldiers post.
V/r,
Lonnie
USA, SGT
Lonnie, thank YOU and your soldiers for serving our country!
Hi Lonnie, Thank you for your comment! The “force” you feel on the highway from passing vehicles is due to airflow around the vehicles. Since this asteroid is in space, that won’t exist. There is in fact a tiny force exerted by the asteroid’s tiny gravity on things around it (like the Earth and our spacecraft in orbit), but at its distance of 17000 miles it is completely negligible.
Thank you Lisa for your insight, this is very logical.
What if this asteroid crashes into our asteroid belt?? Would it send asteroids toward earth “helter skelter”? If so it would be just like how the movies show us. Your thoughts?
Hi Jaysen, this is from our Mission Director, Dr. Harold Reitsema:
The main belt of asteroids is much more distant from the Sun than the Earth is, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. While there are millions of asteroids in the main belt, space is a vast, mostly empty region and collisions are very infrequent. But collisions between asteroids do occasionally happen, and in those events it is possible for the asteroid to change path, and it can even be split into multiple pieces that each follow their own trajectory and possibly venture into the inner Solar System with possible Earth visits. It is possible that the breakup of a large asteroid could produce numerous fragments, but these would each follow their own orbits and, because of the huge distance from the main belt to Earth, would not arrive together. Astronomers have modeled such events in computers and find that, while several fragments can eventually collide with Earth, the time between the collision and the arrival at Earth of a fragment is millions of years, and there would be millions of years more before a second fragment might hit Earth.
Collisions are one of several ways that main belt asteroids can venture into the inner solar system and possibly come close to the Earth. But a much more common cause (though still a once-in-century type event) is that an asteroid’s orbit is disturbed by the gravitational interactions with other asteroids and with Jupiter. Main belt asteroids are in very stable orbits where they have rested undisturbed for over 4 billion years. But occasionally, a main belt asteroid’s orbit is changed enough through random gravitational encounters with other asteroids, or by the gravitational pull from Jupiter. Some of these objects will be sent into the inner solar system, the Earth’s neighborhood. They will “live” in the inner solar system for a brief 50 million years or so, and will then, with orbits changed yet again by distant gravitational encounters with planets, be either sent into the Sun, impact onto a planet (such as the Earth) or leave the solar system.
Wow Lisa your Very smart,
All I want to know is what portion of our marble do we have to be on to see this rock?
D.
I can’t due to the permission of Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Speak Your Mind
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Get the oxymoron?
I am an eighth grade student and am very interested in astronomy, what is the job description of an astronomer? How often do you make knew discoveries?
Hi, I am slightly concerned about the fact we only discovered asteroid 2012 DA14 a year ago..Is there anything you can say to help put my mind at rest about future possible impacts?
Hope so! Many thanks…..
What? Why wasn’t my comment approved? Is there nothing you can say to ease my mind about worries of asteroid impact? Do we know if fly-bys like the one we saw on Friday become more frequent, is there any evidence to support this?
Please give me a reason for deletion on e-mail address provided. I bought a t-shirt from you and everything…! Keep up the good work. Looking forward to a response even if my comment isn’t approved.
Iona-Kathryn,
I saw your comment and want to reply. I don’t know if this will put your mind at ease, and maybe it shouldn’t. First, I should say that the event last Friday is an unusual event and has only about a 1% chance of happening somewhere on Earth every year. And, for all of the injuries, thankfully no one was killed and most of the damage was limited to broken windows.
It will always be difficult to find objects as small as the asteroid that hit Earth Friday – they are small, dark and far away most of the time. But, for larger objects like 2012 DA14 (that are potentially more damaging) we have a better chance of finding them because they are larger. If we know in advance of a threatening asteroid, we can provide warning to people to stay away from windows or evacuate the area. If we have years of advance warning, it will be possible to deflect the threatening asteroid. B612 Foundation is dedicated to finding and preventing future impacts by asteroids.
Thank you for your support! Wear your t-shirt so everyone can see that you care and to help us get the word out about our activity.