WASHINGTON – An asteroid that is coming within cosmic kissing distance of Earth is going to be a little late for its date with our planet. But there is still no chance it will hit Earth.
New observations now have astronomers saying the asteroid, called 2011 MD, won't swing close by Earth until 1 p.m. EDT Monday, about three and-a-half hours later than they first thought. It won't come as close either. It'll come about 7,600 miles near Earth, 100 miles further than first forecast.
The asteroid is between 15 feet and 60 feet wide. It will be bright enough a medium-sized telescope might be able to see it.
Earlier this year an even smaller space rock came within 3,400 miles of Earth.
SOURCE
NASA's near Earth object program: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
Trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth's orbital plane. Note from this viewing angle, the asteroid passes underneath the Earth.
| 
Trajectory of 2011 MD from the general direction of the Sun.
|
Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,300 kilometers (7,600 miles) above the Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 1:00 PM EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico. The diagram on the left shows the trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth's orbital plane over a four-day interval. The diagram on the left gives another view from the general direction of the Sun that indicates that 2011 MD will reach its closest Earth approach point in extreme southern latitudes (in fact over the southern Atlantic Ocean). This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring. One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average. For a brief time, it will be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope.
No comments