What if DA14 was to collide against Earth?
Anyone happening to glance towards the heavens in a week's time and glimpses a 50-metre-long lump of rock hurtling ominously through the skies need not panic.
Although it will pass closer to us than any asteroid has for the past 15 years – closer even than the TV satellites that girdle the planet – Nasa insists that 2012 DA14 will miss Earth by a good 17,100 miles (27,520km).
"No Earth impact is possible," said Donald Yeomans, an astronomer with the US space agency.
He also pointed out that the planet was bombarded by about 100 tonnes of space material every day.
"Basketball-sized objects come in daily," he said. "Volkswagen-sized objects come in every couple of weeks. As you get to larger and larger sizes the number of objects out there is less and less, so the frequency of hits goes down."
Yeomans added that asteroids as big as DA14, which is abou t 46 metres wide, are estimated to strike Earth about every 1,200 years.
"For objects of this size, this is the closest predicted encounter that we're aware of," he said.
Credit: Guardian graphics The asteroid's closest approach will be at 7.24pm on 15 February, meaning that those gazing keenly at the dark skies of eastern Europe, Asia and Australia will stand the best chance of seeing it through telescopes or binoculars.
DA14, which was discovered last year by a group of amateur astronomers in Spain, will soar through the sky at about 8 miles a second. At that speed, an object of similar size on a collision course with Earth would strike with the force of about 2.4m tonnes of dynamite.
The last time that happened was in 1908 when an asteroid or comet exploded over Siberia, levelling 80m trees over 830sq miles.
"Although they wouldn't cause a global catastrophe if they impact the Earth, they still do a lot of regional destruction," said Lindley Johnson, who oversees the Near-Earth Object Observations Programme at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.
It wiped out the dinosaurs, maybe we will get lucky and it will land on Saudi and wipe out the dinosaurs again.
From what I've read an asteroid this size would destroy a city only, with a blast similar to that of a 20 kiloton bomb (similar to Hiroshima).
For worldwide devastation estimates put the size of an asteroid at about a mile in diameter.
But until the day it happens again, it's all guesswork.
nomerci,It just shows collisions like these aren't improbable and can occur anytime. I was trying to understand what extent of damage to life on earth would this collision cause. If this had fallen safely into the sea, a tsunami affecting nearby countries may have been quite damaging.
Well, if it does, then we have a problem.
But, since I can't do anything about it either way, I shall not be bothered for now.
I understand if the asteroid was travelling slower or directed a bit towards earth, a collision was imminent. Or at a certain speed and direction, it could have entered into a permanent orbit around the earth?? Let LP explain!
they told us how much they knew.
Depends where it lands I suppose. If Doha, then we would not be talking :O(
If it lands on the Vatican the pope will say its anti catholic
brit, True..there are millions of chunks of rocks flying past the earth but this is a big one. Imagine its course to be a little different and heading towards the earth.Do you think this big a chunk would get totally burned before striking the surface of earth?
They say an asteroid of this size comes towards earth once around every 1200 years.
There are millions of chunks of large rock flying past the earth. DA14 is just one of them..
NASA & their "C.R.A.P"!