Apollo Class Asteroid Will Have a ‘Near Miss’ Trajectory Past Earth Tomorrow

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The Daily Sheeple | Mar 4, 2014 | Chris Carrington

Tomorrow night an asteroid about 100 feet across will make an extremely close approach with Earth as it passes between the planet and the moon.

At 21:07 GMT (16:07 EST), the 98ft (30 meter) asteroid will make its closest approach reaching a minimum distance of less than 217,000 miles (350,000 km), or 0.9 lunar distances.

Scientists claim it will avoid a collision with Earth, but the 33,000 mph (14.85 km/s) asteroid will provide spectacular views for anyone with a good telescope in their back yard.

The Virtual Telescope Project and Slooh will be providing a live online event sharing real-time images of the asteroid named 2014 DX110.

The event in Siberia, at Tunguska, and last years event at Chelybinsk reminds us that asteroids and meteors can cause damage at the surface, even if they don’t actually hit.

‘But the on-going threat, and the fact that biosphere-altering events remain a real if small annual possibility, suggests that discovering and tracking all near Earth objects, as well as setting up contingency plans for deflecting them on short notice should the need arise, would be a wise use of resources.’ - Astronomer Bob Berman

2014 DX110 is an Apollo class asteroid which means it has an Earth-crossing orbit.

There are currently 240 known Apollos, but it is believed that there are at least 2000 Earth-crossers with diameters of 1 km or larger.

If it hit Earth, an impacting Apollo asteroid would make a crater about 10-20 times its size.

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Contributed by Chris Carrington of The Daily Sheeple.

Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up!