Another Asteroid Passing Earth Tonight

                                                                                                                                                                     Photo: Photos.com

We have a series of visiting asteroids recently. After a one that skirted earth just by 17,000 miles, we have yet another asteroid, about the size of the meteor that exploded over Central Russia's Ural Mountains last month, will be making a close yet safe visit to earth tonight.

Asteroid 2013 EC will be passing by Earth about 246,000 miles away, about 20 times farther out than Asteroid 2012 DA14 that passed by February 15.

The distance makes tonight’s meteor about as far away from us as the moon is — around 1.0 lunar distances. The moon varies between 225,622 miles and 252,088 miles.

The asteroid was discovered on Saturday by astronomers at the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, USA.

Read more about it at: Red Orbit
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Close asteroid encounter this Friday

Asteroids have been coming close to earth many times in the past - but we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth. Get ready for Friday's rendezvous with asteroid 2012 DA14.

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

On this Friday, just a day after the romantic Valentine day, sky watchers in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia will get a chance to see one big rock hurtling through the heavens - One very big rock. 

Compared with other asteroids traveling through space, this one may seem a relative pebble - at half the size of a football field - but for Earth, it will make for a relatively close call.

The asteroid, known as "2012 DA14," will pass inside the ring of Earth's geosynchronous weather and communications satellites this week, coming within just 17,200 miles of the Earth's surface at around 12:30 p.m. PT.

However, there is nothing to worry about, reassures NASA.  Though the impact of an object this size would not be a global catastrophic event, it would surely cause massive and widespread devastation on a regional scale. On June 30, 1908, an asteroid similar to 2012 DA14 did in fact impact Earth, leveling trees for 820 square miles in Tunguska, Russia. These asteroids are serious business and could easily take out an entire city.

via C|net
You may also read: Asteroid 2012 DA14 to intrude inside earth's communication satellite orbit

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Asteroid 2005 YU55 Zooms Past Earth Tuesday

Full Story: CS Monitor November 8, 2011

Radar image of Asteroid 2005 YU55 by NASA

The asteroid 2005 YU55 zoom-passed earth with a massive speed of 29,000 mph (46,700 kph) at a distance of 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) at 6:28 p.m. EST (2328 GMT) Tuesday evening before disappearing into deep space without hurting us.

It may be added that 2005 YU55 came closer than the moon, which orbits earth at an average distance of 238,864 miles (384,499 km). But there was never any danger that 2005 YU55 could ram into Earth, scientists said.

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