Asteroid to buzz by Super Bowl Sunday (earthsky.org)
By Deborah Byrd in Space | February 4, 2018
Asteroids are chunks of rock or metal – most likely debris left over from the formation of our solar system – and they sweep past Earth all the time. Little ones enter our atmosphere fairly frequently. But fast-moving asteroid 2002 AJ129 – which will pass close to Earth this Super Bowl Sunday, February 4, 2018 – is making a bigger stir than some because it’s a relatively big one, somewhere between 0.3 miles (0.5 km) and 0.75 miles (1.2 km) across. Its closest approach to Earth will be at 21:30 UTC (4:30 p.m. EST) on February 4; translate to your time zone. For sure, the Super Bowl will make a bigger splash than asteroid 2002 AJ129, however. At its closest, the asteroid will be no closer than 10 times the moon’s distance (about 2.6 million miles, or 4.2 million km).
Want to watch online? Visit Virtual Telescope Project’s livefeed page for the February 4, 2018 pass of asteroid 2002 AJ129.
This asteroid is a particularly fast-moving one. Its velocity at the time of closest approach will be 76,000 mph (34 km per second), higher than the majority of near-Earth objects during an Earth flyby. NASA said the high flyby velocity is a result of the asteroid’s orbit, which approaches very close to the sun – 11 million miles (18 million km).
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You can see asteroid 2002 AJ129, too. The Virtual Telescope Project has scheduled two livefeeds:
– Live from Arizona, USA: February 4, 2018, starting at 11:00 UTC
– Live from Ceccano, Italy: February 4, 2018, starting at 23:00 UTC
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more: http://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-2002-aj129-trajectory-february4-2018
