Scientists watchful as asteroid whizzes past Earth

BOSTON: NASA kept close tabs on a sizable asteroid which whizzed past our planet yesterday in what the US space agency says was the closest flyby ever predicted for such a large object.
European Space Agency said on Twitter that there was no connection between the asteroid and the meteor which hit Russian mountains yesterday.
About 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter, the asteroid — dubbed 2012 DA 14 — passed about 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) above the Earth, NASA said.
“This distance is well away from Earth and the swarm of low Earth-orbiting satellites, including the International Space Station,” it said in a statement on its website.
Still, “the flyby of 2012 DA14 is the closest-ever predicted approach to Earth for an object this large.”
The space agency had insisted there was nothing to fear.
“NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them,” it said.
The asteroid was visible in eastern Europe, Australia and Asia, according to astronomers, and NASA noted the flyby provided a “unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.”
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California planned a half-hour broadcast incorporating real-time animation to show the asteroid’s location.
Meanwhile, the Goldstone Solar System Radar, located in California’s Mojave Desert took radar images of the asteroid to determine its exact size and shape.
The 2012 DA 14 was discovered by chance by astronomers after passing nearby last February.
NASA estimates a smallish asteroid like 2012 DA 14 flies close to the Earth every 40 years, on average, but only hits our planet once every 1,200 years.
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