Starship Asterisk*

Moonlady wrote:Was it visible to the naked eye?

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news174.html wrote:[...] the asteroid will travel rapidly from the southern evening sky into the northern morning sky with its closest Earth approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility. [...]

Sinan İpek wrote:Is there any connection between this asteroid and the meteorid that fall in Russia the same day?

Boomer12k wrote:WoW, Cooooooool, someone was actually able to capture it... neat.


:---[===] *

MargaritaMc wrote:
I am going to indulge in some quite unjustified pride ( as I have no connection to the Observatory on Mount Teide ) and point out that this superb video comes from my home island of Tenerife. Daniel López apologises on the Vimeo blurb for the shaking of the image, caused by high winds, but it seemed rock steady to me.

Joe Stieber wrote:
This is indeed a fine video of the 2012 DA14 pass. However, I think it pales compared to seeing it with one’s own eye. Even though DA14’s motion and brightness had decreased substantially by time it was accessible from my location in New Jersey, USA, I was able to follow it in my telescope from 7:15 to 8:15 pm local time on 15-Feb-2013 (00:15 to 01:15 UT on 16-Feb-2013). At 160x, movement could be seen in real time, and motion was obvious when DA14 passed near a background star. It was a magical sight!

http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2013/02/11/how-to-find-and-follow-asteroid-2012-da14-during-fridays-flyby/ wrote:
How to find and follow asteroid 2012 DA14 during Friday’s flyby

[b][color=#0000FF]World map with time zones. The area inside the red circle shows very approximately where the asteroid will be visible in a dark sky when it’s closest and brightest. Map credit: Wikipedia[/color][/b]

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by Astro Bob

Despite its proximity, 2012 DA14′s tiny size means not even the largest telescopes will show it as more than a star-like point of light. If you live in eastern Europe, Asia or Australia, you’ll see the asteroid at its closest, when it not only be brightest but moving fastest. I’ve seen a few Earth-approaching asteroids, and they really can book across the sky, but few travel as fast as this one will. In just three hours centered on closest approach, 2012 DA14 will zip from the Southern Cross all the way to the Bowl of the Big Dipper!

It reaches peak brightness around 1:24 p.m. (CST) or 7:30 p.m. in London, England. While the sky will be dark there at that time, the asteroid will still not have risen in the east. We have to go travel farther east and south to catch it at its brightest. Let’s pick Athens, Greece. There the the sky will be dark early enough to spot the asteroid at its brightest (magnitude 7.4) low in Virgo around 10 p.m. local time using standard 40-50mm binoculars. Observers should look for a dim “star” slowly moving from south to north in the field of view.>>

Neufer wrote: But you were only two hours after the end of Daniel López's video...
which explains why 2012 DA14 is slowing down thru-out his video.

Psnarf wrote:That rock had to have been affected by Earth's gravity. That's what is keeping the geosync sats up there. Has anyone processing the data determined its new orbit?

Psnarf wrote:That rock had to have been affected by Earth's gravity.

Psnarf wrote:
Nya, ya missed me!

• Three Billy Goats Gruff

Airburst estimates for a stony asteroid with a diameter ranging from 30 to 85 meters

Diameter 	Kinetic energy 	Airburst energy    Airburst altitude 	Average frequency
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 m  	  	   708 kt	   		 530 kt  		    16.1 km  		    185 years
50 m  	  	   3.3 Mt 		 	  2.9 Mt 		      8.5 km 	   	  764 years
85 m         	16.1 Mt 		  	15.6 Mt 		     0.435 km	  	  3300 years

Psnarf wrote:
That rock had to have been affected by Earth's gravity. That's what is keeping the geosync sats up there. Has anyone processing the data determined its new orbit?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_DA14 wrote:
<<2012 DA14 was discovered on February 23, 2012, by the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra, Granada in Spain (J75) seven days after passing 2,600,000 km from Earth. In 2012 there was a cumulative 0.033% risk estimate (1 in 3,030) of 2012 DA14 impacting Earth sometime between 2026 and 2069. In 2012 it was also known that the asteroid would pass no closer to Earth's surface than 3.2 Earth radii during the 2013 passage. Eliminating an entry on the Sentry Risk Table is a negative prediction; a prediction of where it will not be.

On February 15, 2013 at 19:25 Universal Time, the asteroid passed 34,050 km from the center-point of Earth, with an uncertainty region of about 15 km. It passed 27,743 kilometers above Earth's surface, closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit. The best observation location for the closest approach was Indonesia. Goldstone Observatory will observe 2012 DA14 with radar from February 16 to February 20.

The close approach to Earth reduced the orbital period of 2012 DA14 from 368 days to 317 days, and perturbed it from the Apollo class to the Aten class of near-Earth asteroids. Its next notable close approach to Earth will be on 15 February 2046 when it will pass no closer than 1,500,000 km from the center-point of Earth.>>

mjimih wrote:Is our atmosphere particularly good at busting up space rocks? Does the fact that our air is 25% O2 help in burning up these rocks? If our atmosphere was just inert Nitrogen for example, would the meteors burn up in much the same way?
I'd be willing to assume that if we had an atmosphere twice as thick, we wouldn't have to worry about these pesky leftover-space shuttle-sized rocks any longer.

Case wrote:

Moonlady wrote:Was it visible to the naked eye?

Apparently not:

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news174.html wrote:[...] the asteroid will travel rapidly from the southern evening sky into the northern morning sky with its closest Earth approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility. [...]

neufer wrote:

MargaritaMc wrote: I am going to indulge in some quite unjustified pride ( as I have no connection to the Observatory on Mount Teide ) and point out that this superb video comes from my home island of Tenerife. Daniel López apologises on the Vimeo blurb for the shaking of the image, caused by high winds, but it seemed rock steady to me.

Hardly ideal conditions: "Asteroid 2012 DA Track 14 from 21:00 to 22:46 UT on 15/02/2013
from the Observatorio del Teide. Strong wind gusts of 55km / h make the image shake."

mjimih wrote:This one came in at a low angle very fast. If it had made a more direct shot at us, it would have been much worse correct?