Meteor, asteroid making headlines Friday
Today has turned into a big day for rocks flying toward Earth from space. Scientists have been anticipating today's pass of asteroid 2012 DA14 since it was discovered a year ago by the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra (OLS) in the Andalusian mountains of Southern Spain. We also awoke this morning to news of a meteor streaking through the sky above the Urals region of Russia.
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Today has turned into a big day for rocks flying toward Earth from space.
Spain. We also awoke this morning to news of a meteor streaking through the sky above the Urals region of Russia.
We are already seeing reports of meteorites on the ground, which has planetary scientists very interested. These visitors from space are planetary left overs dating back to the formation of the solar system. The names given to these objects during different points in their journey can be confusing. The same object can be called a meteorite, meteoroid, meteor, NEO, and asteroid along its path to the ground (if it survives) from space. Its all the same (or pieces of) the same object though. In order from the ground to the far reaches of the object's orbit around the sun:
of the potential resources that could be mined from them including metals and ingredients for rocket fuel.
enough for the asteroid to be above the horizon and the sun low enough below the horizon to make it visible to larger research telescopes.
The best place to watch asteroid 2012 DA14 flyby our planet is online or on NASA TV. JPL scientists will start their commentary at 2 pm EST. NASA and other agencies will be watching it via radar through much of the pass.
Tonight is expected to be a clear night, so take the opportunity to see the stars and look to the part of the sky where the asteroid will be streaking away from Earth. It will be low in our Northern skies traveling East to West after sunset tonight.
It will pass through the handle of the Usa Major (the Big Dipper) around 4:45 and on through the tail of Draco the Dragon around 6 pm. Click on the skychart on the left for a better idea of where to look.
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