Coming soon - and close

[pickledginger]

In mid-February, a space rock whose elliptical orbit apparently has been bringing it through our neck of the solar system every 366 days will be swinging by again -- but this time, closer.

The object in question -- 2012 DA14 -- was first spotted as it passed us early this year, and its orbit was calculated in May, according to NASA's Jet

Comments

[cmcmck]

Intriguing stuff.

I haven't noticed any of the neighbourhood dinosaurs looking nervous though. :o)

[pickledginger]

:-D
I think some of the GEO satellites have enough power to get out of the way, too. But there's still a slight chance of space billiards.

[peteralway]

Haven't found any specific links, but the geostationary satellite band is a very narrow ring, exactly over the equator. So the asteroid would have to be crossing the geosynchronous altitude at just the right place to be an issue. And of course the geostationary band isn't *that* densely populated.

Interesting, but not really worrisome, based on just the data in this post.

[pickledginger]

Geosynch is a big, big shell, and we haven't sent much that far up, so the potential targets are pretty scarce. And, as you say, most of them are concentrated in the skinny geostationary band.

Still, I'll be thinking of this passer-by as it skims past.