Asteroid approach shrank to 14,000 miles this a.m. + NASA says "Astrometry is URGENTLY Needed"

There is NO chance of impact on this encounter. None whatsoever.

We already have new astrometry prior to the encounter, and now the uncertainty region is incredibly tight. It does not overlap earth at all, not even close, which is why there is NO chance of impact.

Also, do NOT miss reading threads from Children of the Atom today!

[link to echo.jpl.nasa.gov]

ASTROMETRY IS URGENTLY NEEDED

2012 DA14 was discovered by the La Sagra Sky Survey in Spain on February 23, 2012. This object will make an extremely close approach to within 0.00023 AU of Earth at 19:25 UT (11:25 AM PST) on February 15, 2013. That is only 0.09 lunar distances or 5.4 Earth radii from the center of the Earth. The close approach will be about 28000 km above Earth's
surface. That's inside the distance to geosynchronous satellites but thousands of kilometers above the elevation for low-Earth-orbit spacecraft such as the International Space Station.
At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will move about 0.8 degrees per minute.

The uncertainties in plane-of-sky position, Doppler frequency, and time delay will grow dramatically
during the approach, but even so, this object cannot impact Earth during this encounter.

2012 DA14's absolute magnitude of 24.4 suggests a diameter within a factor of two of about 50 meters.
Nick Moskovitz (Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC) reported that he obtained lightcurves and
spectroscopy shortly after 2012 DA14 was discovered. The asteroid has a rotation period of about 6 hours
and it's an L-class object, hinting that it has an optical albedo of about 0.2. The lightcurve
amplitude is close to one magnitude, so the shape is probably elongated. Nothing else is known
about this object.

Due to the extremely close approach, this object will be a very strong radar target at Goldstone
and we plan to image it with the highest resolution available (3.75 meters) from the chirp system.
The round-trip time on the first track on Feb. 16 is so short that observations on that day
will be bistatic with reception of radar echoes at DSS-13.

2012 DA14 will approach from the south and will enter Goldstone's declination window on February 16, 2013,
shortly after the closest approach. Afterward it will be a circumpolar object as it recedes from Earth.

Radar observations at Goldstone are scheduled on 2013 Feb. 16, 18, 19, and 20.

We need additional astrometry to improve the orbit. As a result, below we list circumstances for optical
observations starting many months before the encounter in order to help facilitate observations
by optical observers. The apparent magnitudes will be fainter than 22nd until until the beginning of
February, but the solar elongation will be only about 60 degrees, so obtaining optical astrometry
will be challenging. In addition, the asteroid will be at far southern declinations until Feb. 15
when it will move from about -75 deg to +75 deg in only a few hours.

This object will not be observable at Arecibo.

2012 DA14 will brighten to about 7th magnitude at the time of the closest approach, when observers
in Asia might be able to see it with binoculars and small telescopes. Doing so will require
knowing very precisely where to look and will require a site-specific ephemeris due to parallax.

2012 DA14 is too small to be classified as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid" (PHA) by the Minor
Planet Center.

Radar observations are also planned by other researchers at the EISCAT radar near Tromso, Norway
starting at 20:00 UT on Feb. 15 and at the Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts starting at 22:00 UT
on Feb. 15. Goldstone observations start at 03:00 UT on Feb. 16, several hours after observations
begin at the other radars.

Thanks Astromut. I always like when you wade through the hype. But if you ever figure one of these is going to hit, don't keep it to yourself.

Astromut trolls these threads in such a confrontational way he is hard to take. Why would anyone spend the time, over and over again, year after year I don't know. Especially when they claim its all bullshit.

It seems so beneath him. to hear him tell others who simply have a different point of view they are stupid over and over again.

I wonder if he busts into Starbucks when he spots people in there having a conversation and imposed his will on them.

He is like the plague to free-thought.

Remember an object's mass increases with it's speed. How fast is the object moving and what is it's estimated stationary mass? The Earth's crust and atmosphere has a negative static charge so what is the object's predominate mineral mass charge: do positive or negative elements make up the greater porportion of its mass? When it spins close by Earth there will be a static discharge if it comes close enough and this discharge will either draw it closer or push it away depending on the objects net polarity charge of negative or positive. Might be the cause of an uptick or decrease in Earthquakes at the least and may affect the weather to some degree.

Size of a football field supposedly.

14,000 miles is NOT EVEN CLOSE for an object the size of a football field.

That's about one and a half Earth diameters.

You're all acting like chickens on cocaine, in a barnyard during an earthquake.

If it was going to miss the Earth by 200 miles or less, I might call it a near miss.

I suppose you all think that being on your high school football team means you " almost were in the NFL ".

on John Moore's friday show Ann Morrison said that it has been recalculated to 5 football fields and that they think it is round-ish so..5 football fields squared.

Astromut trolls these threads in such a confrontational way he is hard to take. Why would anyone spend the time, over and over again, year after year I don't know. Especially when they claim its all bullshit.

It seems so beneath him. to hear him tell others who simply have a different point of view they are stupid over and over again.

I wonder if he busts into Starbucks when he spots people in there having a conversation and imposed his will on them.

He is like the plague to free-thought.

Astro. I love your posts but we both know a real impacting threat would not be told to the public. It is a real policy, you know it.

Knowing that, data would need to be scrubbed as well.


Though, resting firmly in reality, the chances of this rock being a hidden Real threat is quite low, very very low.


But when certain oddities arise, like a 99.999% chance of miss for a rock coming closer then ever......


What gets me is the speed this rock passes us. VERY slow cause it drifts in orbit next to us.

If anything, even if it hit at 90 degrees impact. the damage would be low.

Maybe we can have it hit New Orleans and make that place above sea level with all that rock.

There is NO chance of impact on this encounter. None whatsoever.

We already have new astrometry prior to the encounter, and now the uncertainty region is incredibly tight. It does not overlap earth at all, not even close, which is why there is NO chance of impact.

Everybody reading this thread, please ignore that Astro mutt, he is a known shill around here whose job is to allay concerns and fears over potentially threatening space threats in order to blind people to the truth. One of his greatest disinfo is regarding Nibiru,or other known and unknown space threats such as incoming Galactic Superwaves which will cause some serious changes here sometime before the end of the current year.

Everybody reading this thread, please ignore that Astro mutt, he is a known shill around here whose job is to allay concerns and fears over potentially threatening space threats in order to blind people to the truth. One of his greatest disinfo is regarding Nibiru,or other known and unknown space threats such as incoming Galactic Superwaves which will cause some serious changes here sometime before the end of the current year.

CNN had a guy on, and said this Asteroid will be only 15 min away from hitting earth on the 15th!!!

Everybody reading this thread, please ignore that Astro mutt,

Hey Astro, we keep being told how much 'space junk' there is around earth now, but what I want to know is, is any of this space junk large enough to alter the course of this asteroid if there was a collision?

14,000 miles is basically a hairs width in astronomical terms.
I fully do not believe that they have accurate enough data to pin it down 100% to such a degree.

Prepare for impact.

Why do you hate free speech?
Why do you hate science, logic, and evidence?

Is it because it keeps proving that your doomgastic fantasies are just that?
Dreck dragged up from your rather unsanitary subconscious.



This rock masses something like a million tonnes at least, satellites typically mass a few tonnes.
The satellite would get dustified, the rock would barely notice.
It would get a little crater and might loose a few centimetres per second of speed.
Which might make a difference a thousand years later, but not now.

All we need is a burst of solar wind and this thing get steered right for Earth. Anyone have a Space forecast?