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18.02.2014
"HUGE ASTEROID" HYPE: Major news outlets are reporting the close approach of a "huge asteroid" to Earth on February 17-18. 2000 EM26 is about as wide as 2 football fields and it is flying past our planet 2 million miles away at 27,000 mph. It's all true.
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It's also all hype. This asteroid is little different than half-a-dozen other space rocks that have already whizzed passed Earth at similar distances in February, including one, 2006 DP14, that is almost 4 times larger.
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The sudden attention to 2000 EM26 is disproportionate to its actual uniqueness or potential impact.
Quelle: Spaceweather, NASA
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Update: 19.02.2014
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Asteroid the length of 3 football fields eludes sky-watchers
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An asteroid the length of three football fields has eluded astronomers once again.
"If we see it, that will be historic because we've reacquired a potentially hazardous asteroid," astronomer Bob Berman said Monday night. "If it turns out we can't see it, then we are going to be asking, 'Where the heck is it?'"
Berman made the comments at the start of a one-hour broadcast on the website Slooh.com that was supposed to track the large asteroid as it made its closest approach to Earth.
But the asteroid never showed up.
Despite its relatively large size, the asteroid known as 2000 EM26 has long been difficult to spot. In fact, it hasn't been seen by anyone since March 14, 2000, nine days after it was discovered.
"The orbital uncertainties for this object are huge," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "Although nominal orbit information suggests it would come closest to the Earth on Feb. 18, the uncertainties of its position in the sky are enormous."
Although 2000 EM26 is technically a potentially hazardous asteroid, Yeomans said there was no chance of it hitting our planet for at least 100 years.
At its closest approach to Earth, it would still probably be more than 2 million miles away, more than eight times as far as the moon.
"We would expect an object of that size to pass that close to the Earth every six months," he said.
Yeomans is confident the asteroid will be rediscovered one day, and when the new observation of the asteroid's position is combined with the observations made in 2000, then its orbit will be well known.
"And then, once we know where to find it, everybody who owns a telescope will be able to observe it," he said.
In the meantime, Slooh.com has promised a non-monetary reward to anyone who spots the wayward asteroid.
"We are calling on amateur astronomers to find this asteroid, and as a reward we will promote their accomplishment on our home page for a year," Michael Paolucci, chief executive of Slooh, said in a statement. "We don't have the authortiy to name the asteroid after them, but we would if we could."
In the meantime, the Slooh community has nicknamed 2000 EM26 "Moby Dick."
Quelle: ScienceNow
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Update: 25.02.2014
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Radar Images of near-Earth Asteroid 2006 DP14
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A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2006 DP14 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on the night of Feb. 11, 2014.Delay-Doppler radar imaging revealed that the asteroid is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) long, 660 feet (200 meters) wide, and shaped somewhat like a big peanut. The asteroid's period of rotation is about six hours. The asteroid is of a type known as a "contact binary" because it has two large lobes on either end that appear to be in contact. Previous radar data from Goldstone and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has shown that at least 10 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than about 650 feet (200 meters) have contact binary shapes like that of 2006 DP14. The data were obtained over an interval of 2.5 hours as the asteroid completed about half a revolution. The resolution is about 60 feet (19 meters) per pixel.
The data were obtained on Feb. 11 between 9:03 a.m. and 11:27 p.m. PST (12:03 a.m. to 2:27 a.m. EST on Feb. 12). At the time of the observations, the asteroid's distance was about 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers) from Earth. That is about 11 times the average distance between Earth and its moon. The asteroid's closest approach to Earth occurred on Feb. 10, at a distance of about 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers).
Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation state, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren't available.
NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the United States has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth objects.
In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country that are working to track and understand these objects better, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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Quelle: NASA
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