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Originally posted by watchitburn
reply to post by PlanetXisHERE
Maybe I'm just not very concerned, but only 4 of them were within 1 Lunar Distance.
All the others don't seem to be very close. The closest was .6, that's still almost 200,00km. I wouldn't be worried about it.
ETA - 230,604.6 km to be exact.edit on 14-12-2012 by watchitburn because: exact distance of closest.
Originally posted by AwaitingTruth
reply to post by PlanetXisHERE
If only actual stories and news such as this was main stream....one of them are almost half the distance from here to the moon!
You think that would be news!
Originally posted by IgnorantSquare
What about 15 feb?? Only 0.09 LD with a diameter of 57 meter.. it is still pretty far away in human related distance but ok astronomical it is close
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 0.00024 AU of Earth on February 15, 2013. That is only about 0.09 lunar distances or about 4.5 Earth radii above Earth's surface. The uncertainties in plane-of-sky position, Doppler frequency, and time delay will grow dramatically during the approach, but even so, this object will not impact Earth. Not much is known about this object except its absolute magnitude of 24.4, which suggests a diameter within a factor of two of 50 m. Due to the extremely close approach, this object will be a very strong radar target at Goldstone and we hope to image it with the highest resolution available (3.75 meters) from the chirp system. 2012 DA14 will approach from the south and will enter Goldstone's declination range 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 and 17 and additional tracks may be added. 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 rapidly moves from about -75 deg to +75 deg in only a few hours.
Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE
I wonder what size tidal wave that would make?
Originally posted by Virgil Cain
Could be unrelated, but might the fact that we are passing through the section of space that produces the Geminids as well as the trailing debris of a second comet called Wirtanen have something to do with it uptick? Just a guess, but I'd be curious to know if this might have something to do with it...
Wired - Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight