Asteroid heading our way!!!
Stories like this will get you thinking about the movies "Deep Impact" or "Armageddon."But there is no need to worry, because this asteroid heading towards Earth should narrowly miss us!
The 50m (164ft) long asteroid, about half the length of a football pitch, was spotted last month by a team operating from Granada in Spain.
The large space rock known as, 2012 DA14 is due around February 15th 2013, but will whizz past our planet at a distance of "just" 14,500 miles (24,000km), which apparently is closer than orbiting satellites! To give you an idea, it is 11,601 miles from the UK to New Zealand so this rock is pretty close, he say's!
Surely it should be called 2013 DA14 if its due next year?!
If the asteroid, with enough power to equal that of an hydrogen bomb, enters our atmosphere and explodes, it could potentially destroy an area the size of Greater London!
Glad I live in Essex!
Nasa's Near Earth Object Program says the asteroid will be invisible to the naked eye, but could be seen by binoculars or telescope.
I'm sure we will see it, if it enters our atmosphere!
A system being developed by the La Sagra Sky Survey (SSA), using automated optical telescopes to detect asteroids like this one, is now in use, with the goal of spotting them at least 3 weeks before closest approach to Earth. Should give us all time, to dig a nice hole to hibernate in!
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