Asteroid on way, not too close for comfort

Hawkesbury Gazette ^ | January 30, 2013 | Nicky Phillips

[BenLurkin]

An asteroid about half the size of a football field will hurtle past Earth on February 15, NASA scientists report.

While there is no chance the flying rock will collide with our planet, it will break the record for the closest fly-by of an asteroid its size.

"Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth," said Don Yeomans, a planetary scientist with NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The 50-metre wide asteroid, known as 2012 DA14, will come within 28,000 kilometres of Earth's surface, closer than the belt of geosynchronous satellites that record weather data and telecommunications.

[Yo-Yo]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks blam! And everyone else, that was just an FR nick', not the sound this asteroid will make.

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[Las Vegas Dave]

Of possible interest to the unidentified aerial phenomena ping list..

[Las Vegas Dave]

Of possible interest to the unidentified aerial phenomena ping list..