Feb. 15: Close Earth Flyby of Large Asteroid

Jan. 28, 2013:  Talk about a close shave. On Feb. 15th an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth only 17,200 miles above our planet's surface. There's no danger of a collision, but the space rock, designated 2012 DA14, has NASA's attention.

"This is a record-setting close approach," says Don Yeomans of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at JPL. "Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth."

A new ScienceCast video previews the close flyby of asteroid 2012 DA. Play it

More - Link >>> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/28jan_2012da/

Source: NASA Science News.

Related Blog Post --

Space Miners: Earth-Buzzing Asteroid May Be Worth $195 Billion (2013 Feb. 13):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/space-miners-earth-buzzing-asteroid-may.html

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