Asteroid 2012 DA14 Near Miss

Asteroid 2012 DA14 (hover mouse over picture to highlight the asteroid).
 

The little streak of light in the picture above is asteroid 2012 DA14 which passed within 17,000 miles of the earth on Friday 15th February. The photograph was made by your star-struck editor last night from High Hutton and you can see an animated sequence of pictures below, each frame was taken at a 30 second interval which shows just how fast the asteroid appeared to be moving.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 (small streak moving from lower right to centre).

This little chunk of rock is just fifty meters across but every year dozens of much bigger asteroids make a close approach to the earth. 2012 DA14 now holds the record for the closest known approach.

Find out more about the asteroid at the NASA and British Astronomical Association websites.


All material © Philip Stone 2013