It was a year ago when Asteroid 2012 DA14 was spotted by Jamie Normen, who realised that the trace of light in the sky was an asteroid of an estimated mass of 130,000 metric tonnes, a diameter around 45 metres, returning again close in 2020.
This isn't going to be a re-run of the dinosaur annihilation so don't worry! Asteroid 2012 DA14 will not hit Earth (see diagram), but it will pass only just 25,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface - outside the atmosphere, closer than communications satellites but outside the Hubble space telescope.
On [February 15, 2013], the asteroid will travel rapidly from the
southern evening sky into the northern morning sky with its closest Earth
approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less
than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility. About 4
minutes after its Earth close approach, there is a good chance it will pass
into the Earth’s shadow for about 18 minutes or so before reappearing from the
eclipse. When traveling rapidly into the northern morning sky, 2012 DA14 will
quickly fade in brightness.
[NASA]
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