Asteroid mendekati bumi pada jarak paling hampir 15 februari 2013

Asteroid 2012 DA14 dijangka menghampiri dengan jarak yang sangat hampir dengan bumi. Asteroid sebesar 45 diameter ini dijangka mendekati bumi pada 15 februari ini (2013).

Sumber gambar : www.abc.net.au

NASA: Asteroid to Pass Very Near Earth

Astronomers around the world are preparing for a record-breaking asteroid flyby February 15.  

Measuring 45 meters in diameter and weighing an estimated 130,000 metric tons, Asteroid 2012 DA14 is considered small by scientists who track the solar system's rocky debris, but it will zip past our planet so closely that it will be even nearer to us than our orbiting weather and communications satellites.

It is the closest-ever-predicted approach for an object this size. Experts emphasize there is no reason for concern.  

"There's no danger to the planet at all," Lindley Johnson of NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program in Washington told VOA. "We know the orbit quite well now."

Close flyby

Johnson said Asteroid 2012 DA14 will come as close as 27,700 kilometers - about one-tenth the distance between the Earth and the Moon.   

"Close flybys of asteroids happen quite frequently," explained Johnson, who said more than 20 asteroids have come between the Earth and the Moon in the past year. "But they're usually very small-sized objects - maybe only a few meters in size."  

The 45-meter asteroid will speed past us at about 7.8 kilometers per second, nearly 10 times faster than a speeding bullet.

Boleh baca dan tengok video selanjutnya di sini :

http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa_says_asteroid_will_pass_very_near_earth/1600283.html

So sediakanlah teropong (binocular) sebab ianya boleh dilihat di Asia Tenggara , Eropah Timur , Afrika Utara dan Australia. Untuk waktu yang tepat kena baca link kat atas tu dan tonton video.

- jumpa lagi..