How to Watch a Near-Earth Asteroid Zoom Closer to Earth than the Moon

Live Science ^ | November 9, 2018 06:14pm ET | Laura Geggel

[BenLurkin]

Three chunky asteroids will zoom by Earth this weekend, and one of them is getting closer to our planet than the moon itself.

On Saturday (Nov. 10), the near-Earth asteroid 2018 VX1 will zip within about 236,100 miles (380,000 kilometers) of Earth. That's closer than the moon, which hangs out about 238,900 miles (384,400 km) away as it orbits Earth.

Gianluca Masi, founder and director of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, which is live-streaming the celestial show online here starting at 1 p.m. EST (18:00 UTC) on Saturday.

…

People here on Earth will be able to see the star of the show — asteroid 2018 VX1 — online at about 1:20 p.m. EST (18:20 UTC), "the moment of its minimum distance from us," Masi said. This particular asteroid was discovered by scientists at the Mount Lemmon Survey, near Tucson, Arizona, just a few days ago, on Nov. 4. Two days later, the Minor Planet Center announced the discovery, estimaging the asteroid's diameter to be between 26 and 59 feet (8 and 18 m).

The Virtual Telescope snapped the above photo of asteroid 2018 VX1 with a single, 600-second exposure on Nov. 8.

"The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid; this is why stars show as long trails," Masi said. "The asteroid looks like a sharp dot of light in the center of the image, marked by two red lines."

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#4. NOW you tell me!!

[emotionalcripple]

“How to Watch a Near-Earth Asteroid Zoom Closer to Earth than the Moon”

Curled up in a fetal position, sucking my thumb!

[mabarker1]

P

[Steely Tom]

If you follow the instructions at the website, you will end up installing something you don’t want, at least if you’re using the Firefox browser.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj. Not really a catastrophe, but it's stuff like this which causes impact, now *that* can be a catastrophe.

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Near-Earth Asteroid 2018 VX1 very close encounter: live observation

[SunkenCiv]

The Moon's not on the same side of the Earth at this time, but impacts on the Moon have been spotted before.

• Moon's Youngest Crater Discovered [2002]
• NASA Solves Moon Mystery (+Geology Picture of the Week, February 16-22, 2003) [2003]
• Astronomers unravel a mystery of the Dark Ages [2004]
• A Celestial Collision [2004]
• Giordano Bruno, the June 1975 Meteoroid Storm, Encke, and Other Taurid Complex Objects [2004]
• Comet or Meteorite Impact Events in 1178AD? [2005]
• Landscapes from the ancient and eroded lunar far side [2006]
• Yost Says You're Not Frightened Enough [2009]
• LUNAR IMPACT PLUME [LCROSS team: Moon collision a "smashing success" after all] [2009]
• Mysterious radiation burst recorded in tree rings [2012]
• Bright Explosion on the Moon [2013]
• lunarimpact kw

[ETL]

Just don’t get any asteroids near Uranus.

The only "roids" you need to worry about getting near uranus are hemorrhoids.

[ETL]

I wonder what magnification would be needed in order to actually see the asteroid moving with respect to the background stars?

[ETL]

Thanks for the ping.

[BenLurkin]

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. Sorry that video wasn't a lot better, but the other ones I found were either foreign language, or they were Nibiru/fringe BS kinds of things.

[Redcitizen]

Chuck Norris could do push ups and push the earth away.

[BigEdLB]

If it hits maybe it will hit Teheran