The day has come for our planet to get a cosmically close visit from asteroid 2012 DA14. The 50-km-diameter space rock will make its closest approach to Earth at 11:24 a.m. PST/ 2:24 p.m. EST, at which point it will be only 27,700 km above the surface, less than one-tenth the Earth-moon distance and well within the orbit of geosynchronous satellites.
Wired will have live feeds from several sources all day long starting at 9 a.m. PST/12 p.m. EST. You can check back with us throughout the day as we update with the latest telescope views from observatories around the world. The first live show (above) is from NASA, which is streaming views from telescopes in Australia and Europe. NASA scientists will provide commentary of the event starting at 11 a.m. PST/ 2 p.m. EST and continuous coverage for several hours.
During peak viewing hours, astronomers in the Middle East and Europe will offer two chances to watch the flyby. The Bareket Observatory in Israel will provide images of the asteroid updating continuously every 30 to 60 seconds from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PST/2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST. The Virtual Telescope Project will have live images from Italy along with commentary starting at 2 p.m PST/5 p.m. EST.
Once the sun sets in the U.S., several outfits will have feeds of the asteroid as it flies away from the Earth. One feed will come from the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts, which will last from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. PST/6 p.m. to 4 a.m. EST. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will stream three hours of asteroid images starting at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST. And, if you need still more asteroid views, you can tune into two Slooh Space Camera shows, the first at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST and the second at 9 p.m PST/midnight EST. Slooh’s astronomers Paul Cox and Bob Berman will provide commentary and insight along with Prescott Observatory manager Matt Francis.
Adam is a Wired Science staff writer. He lives in Oakland, Ca near a lake and enjoys space, physics, and other sciency things.
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Watch Live: Record-Setting Asteroid Flies by Earth
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Watch Live: Record-Setting Asteroid Flies by Earth
