Earth, Asteroid 2012 JU Come Within 119,000 Miles Of Each Other

By: Mike Wall
Published: 05/14/2012 02:41 PM EDT on SPACE.com

An asteroid the size of a school bus gave Earth a close shave yesterday (May 13), passing well inside the orbit of the moon, but our planet was never in any danger of being hit.

The near-Earth asteroid 2012 JU, which is thought to be about 40 feet (12 meters) wide, came within 119,000 miles (191,500 kilometers) or so of our planet before zooming off into deep space, according to NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 238,000 miles (382,900 km). 

The asteroid-tracking office put together an animation of asteroid 2012 JU's orbit to illustrate its Sunday flyby. The space rock completes one lap around the sun every 3.2 years, according to a Near-Earth Object Program database.

Such close asteroid flybys aren't terribly uncommon.

On April 1, for example, the 150-foot-wide (46-m) asteroid 2012 EG5 came within about 143,000 miles (230,000 km) of our planet during its closest approach. And on March 26, two smaller space rocks buzzed Earth. One passed within 96,000 miles (154,000 km), while the other missed us by just 36,000 miles (58,000 km).

But those asteroids are all lightweights compared to 2005 YU55, a city-block-size space rock that came within 202,000 miles (325,000 km) of Earth last November. At 1,300 feet (400 m) wide, 2005 YU55 was the biggest asteroid to come so close to our planet since 1976, researchers said.

Researchers have discovered about 8,900 near-Earth asteroids, though they think many more are out there. Scientists with the Near-Earth Object Program and other teams of astronomers regularly monitor the sky for large, potentially dangerous asteroids to determine if they pose an impact threat to Earth.

Our planet occasionally gets pummeled by gigantic space rocks, sometimes with devastating consequences. For instance, the dinosaurs are thought to have been wiped out by a 6-mile-wide (10-km) asteroid that slammed into Earth 65 million years ago.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

• Photos: Huge Asteroid 2005 YU55 Flies Close By Earth in Nov. 2011
• 5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids
• The 7 Strangest Asteroids in the Solar System

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Comments

[Abmaj7]

02:04 AM on 06/12/2012

God's aim is getting better.

[mamacat]

03:09 AM on 05/25/2012

Wednesday, May 23rd, NASA/JPL discovered another near earth object, asteroid 2012 KP 24. Thursday, May 24th, its orbit was projected. On Monday, May 28th, 2012, this 85 ft diameter asteroid will pass closer to the Earth than the geo-stationary satellites orbiting the planet.

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2012%20KP24;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=1#cad

[mamacat]

06:47 AM on 05/27/2012

An easier link to use:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[mamacat]

02:33 AM on 05/17/2012

A recent news release from NASA, in which they estimate that they have found and plotted the orbits of 20 to 30 percent of the potentially hazardous asteroids:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/16may_pha/

[mamacat]

12:20 AM on 05/17/2012

Another, albeit not very large, asteroid was found today, which will pass near to Earth tomorrow, May 17th.

Asteroid 2012 KA, about 25 feet in diameter, will pass 0.6 lunar distance from the earth only a day after being discovered.

http://spaceweather.com/

[lakeinsky1]

09:20 AM on 05/16/2012

Newtons laws still apply- it takes an equal mass to move a mass- in the case of nuclear, they are hopeing a large blast will deflect it- at 40,000 miles per second, it wont even raise the temperature of the irregularly tumbling rock- catching up to it then turning around to try and cut it up would require 40000 mps which rocketry can't do not to mention the fuel required - in a few thousand years when this may become necessary, fossil fuel probably depleated- but not to worry, I will figure it out for nasa -all by myself-so back to the drawing board!

[mbkeefer]

04:28 PM on 05/27/2012

If it is moving 40,000 miles per sec we do not need a nuc. Just hit it head on with anything and the kinetic energy will blow it to bits.

[mamacat]

04:53 PM on 05/28/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light

40,000 miles per second would indeed be a very rapid speed.

[lensamy]

08:45 AM on 05/16/2012

I wonder if we have the tools to destroy an asteroid??. If not, we should seriously get prepare the earth used to get bombarded aeons ago and i dont see why it cant happen again. Other than that love astronomy.

[mbkeefer]

04:35 PM on 05/27/2012

All you have to do is detonate a nuc along side early enough and the thrust from the vaporized skin of the asteroid will move it enough to miss. The more time you have before impact the more gentle a method can be used.

[phal4875]

04:08 PM on 05/15/2012

It seems almost impossible to believe that we will not be hit again by an asteroid, meteoroid, or comet that sends us back to a time of rudimentary technology. Losing the electric grid worldwide or the Internet would be a disaster. The equivalent of a volcanic winter would be something from which we might not recover.

[erebus99]

09:24 AM on 05/15/2012

I don't feel that space exploration is a waste of money, but I also don't think our asteroid-spotting abilities are anything to crow about just yet. At the right angle and speed we could have a mountain heading straight at us that would still be virtually invisible until it punched through the atmosphere.

[mbkeefer]

04:36 PM on 05/27/2012

They did not spot this latest rock until just a few days ago.

[Nowhear this]

07:58 AM on 05/15/2012

This should be a perfect example to all who believe that space exploration is a waste of money. Eventually one of these near misses is going to be a direct path for us with nothing to stop it. Lower forms of life like the dinosoars were wiped out with one. And if the lower forms of life have their way again the end result will be the same.

[mamacat]

07:26 AM on 05/15/2012

There is evidence that an asteroid impacted the New Zealand shelf in 1443 A.D.. It is referred to as the Mahuika Crater. The crater today is about 12 miles across.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AGUFMPP31C..05A

The famous crater in Arizona, Meteor Crater, is less than 1 mile across.

Chinese history records that thousands of people were killed in the 15th century AD when an object from the sky broke up and showered a populated area with small pieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event -- see under "Shanxi province"

The recent much smaller asteroid that passed by Earth on May 13 was not discovered until the very last minute, and if it had been on an impact trajectory, there is nothing that could have been done to stop it. Hopefully NASA would have warned of the possibility of the impact. Since 71% of the surface of this planet is covered in water, coastal areas close to the point of impact might have been evacuated. Some small asteroids break up harmlessly, and some explode violently.

[phal4875]

04:12 PM on 05/15/2012

That New Zealand crater is huge. If it had been in the northern hemisphere, it is easy to picture vast devastation. An impact about 12,000 years ago in North America might well have wiped out the megafauna on this continent. Some blame the loss of the short-faced bear, sabre-toothed cats, mastodons, and mammoths on such an event. The Clovis People also seem to have been wiped out at about that time.

[plainsman]

02:41 AM on 05/15/2012

If we figure out one's headed our way, we're going to have to get funding to prevent a collision from someone who believes asteroids are only 6,000 years old. Yeah.

[DARK STAR]

10:36 PM on 05/14/2012

It should really make you realize how important our time really is while alive on this wonderful planet and spaceship....

[phal4875]

04:13 PM on 05/15/2012

Given our short time on this earth, we should all recognize the value of our lives.

[Mr Crabs]

10:23 PM on 05/14/2012

Apophis FTW!

[Dave24]

09:13 PM on 05/14/2012

Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick.

[IDIOTA]

01:29 AM on 05/15/2012

Indeed

[storiesfromhavendotcom]

08:08 PM on 05/14/2012

The danger NEO's present is enough justification to have a vigorous presence in space. The methodology and technology involved in mining the asteroids would likely be suitable for diverting the course of a possible impact object.

[Chubbster]

09:59 PM on 05/14/2012

"a vigorous presence in space"
Irony!

[Jarrod Putnam]

06:59 AM on 05/15/2012

Agreed. I always get annoyed when I hear people ask why we are "wasting" money up in space when there is problems on Earth.