Earth is in for a close call.

Asteroid 2014 DX110 is set to fly between the Earth and the moon Wednesday. Slooh Space Camera will broadcast the flyby live starting at 4 p.m. EST on March 5.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/asteroid-2014-dx110-flyby-march-live-video_n_4898936.html

I see from the Virtual Telescope project there is another one coming close.

The Minor Planet Center just announced the discovery of a 4-14 meters large asteroid, 2014 EC, going to have an amazingly close encounter with the Earth Next Mar 6 at 22:05 UT: the minimum distance from our planet will be of 83.000 km (72.000 km from Earth surface), that is 0.21 times the mean distance of our Moon. It is an absolutely safe distance, so no risks at all of collision.

A tiny space rock barely missed Earth on Thursday in the third of back-to-back-to-back asteroid flybys over the past 24 hours, coming six times closer than the orbit of the moon.

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NASA's Hubble Telescope Witnesses Asteroid's Mysterious Disintegration

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the never-before-seen break-up of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces.
Fragile comets, comprised of ice and dust, have been seen falling apart as they near the sun, but nothing like this has ever before been observed in the asteroid belt.
"This is a rock, and seeing it fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing," said David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the astronomical forensics investigation.

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

NASA's Hubble Telescope Witnesses Asteroid's Mysterious Disintegration

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the never-before-seen break-up of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces.
Fragile comets, comprised of ice and dust, have been seen falling apart as they near the sun, but nothing like this has ever before been observed in the asteroid belt.
"This is a rock, and seeing it fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing," said David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the astronomical forensics investigation.

Thanks, Zapped Sparky, for the article.

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For skywatchers...



You've probably never seen an eclipse quite like this.

Early Thursday morning, skywatchers in North America will be treated to a rare celestial sight when a 45-mile wide asteroid eclipses a star. Regulus, the brightest star in the Leo constellation, will be visible from Earth overnight between March 19 and 20 as asteroid Erigone makes a pass.


Big Asteroid To Eclipse Bright Star 'Regulus' In Rare Celestial Sight Thursday Morning (LIVE VIDEO)

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I hope it stays clear tonight.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I hope it stays clear tonight.

I hope so too... cos then you can tell us about it :)

No eclipse watching for me this morning. The sky is hazy and that combined with the local light pollution means only a few of the brightest stars are visible. I also read that the event is viewable in the northeast USA so Florida is probably too far south. I may watch online.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/innovation/asteroid-rings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Steve

Edit: Oops! It was already posted in the new discovery thread.

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/innovation/asteroid-rings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Steve

Edit: Oops! It was already posted in the new discovery thread.

It's okay Steve. It's still an asteroid.

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/innovation/asteroid-rings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Steve

Edit: Oops! It was already posted in the new discovery thread.

It's okay Steve. It's still an asteroid.

With rings! Certainly a new discovery:)

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rOZZ
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With rings! Certainly a new discovery:)

What's really interesting is how such rings can exist and how they were formed...

I would have expected sunlight and the solar wind to have dispersed them in a short enough time for us to likely never see such things... So what's the 'story' here I wonder... Asteroid shepherd moons?...


Space is vast and interesting!

;-)


Keep searchin',
Martin

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It might not be an asteroid, but does a meteor count?

Skydiver narrowly misses getting hit by apparent meteor in midair.

*both high speed multi-frame image and video contained in link*

Cheers.

This Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, three former NASA astronauts will present new evidence that our planet has experienced many more large-scale asteroid impacts over the past decade than previously thought… three to ten times more, in fact. A new visualization of data from a nuclear weapons warning network, to be unveiled by B612 Foundation CEO Ed Lu during the evening event at Seattle's Museum of Flight, shows that "the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck."

http://phys.org/news/2014-04-astronauts-reveal-sobering-asteroid-impacts.html

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This Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, three former NASA astronauts will present new evidence that our planet has experienced many more large-scale asteroid impacts over the past decade than previously thought… three to ten times more, in fact. A new visualization of data from a nuclear weapons warning network, to be unveiled by B612 Foundation CEO Ed Lu during the evening event at Seattle's Museum of Flight, shows that "the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck."

http://phys.org/news/2014-04-astronauts-reveal-sobering-asteroid-impacts.html

Perturbingly interesting... thank you... I think :)

Arthur C. Clarke predicted in his book "Rendezvous with Rama" that the only thing that will get us off our collective rumps and get a REAL space program going is an asteroid strike big enough to wipe out a city actually hitting a big city. I forget now whether it was Paris or Rome. Only then will we get serious about building a workable space defense system capable of deflecting or destroying an asteroid or comet that big.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Our ability to detect dangerous asteroids may be getting better, but there are still many that slip through the cracks. Asteroid 2014 HL129 squeaked by Earth on Saturday at a distance that was even closer than our own moon. It may have been almost 200,000 miles away, but it raises a lot of valid concerns about the number of devastating Asteroids that continue to fly past our vulnerable planet. The asteroid, which is roughly the size of a school bus went unnoticed until just days before its arrival. Had this been on a collision course with Earth, that might have barely been enough time to calculate the impact zone and evacuate that area.

http://americanlivewire.com/2014-05-04-asteroid-2014-hl129-narrowly-misses-earth-barely-getting-noticed/

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The asteroid, which is roughly the size of a school bus went unnoticed until just days before its arrival.

Even a bus sized rock has been hit many times by smaller rocks.

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The asteroid, which is roughly the size of a school bus went unnoticed until just days before its arrival.

Even a bus sized rock has been hit many times by smaller rocks.

Yep, that's what formed all the craters on the Moon. The Moon was never protected by an atmosphere and had a rough time...

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rOZZ
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