Next year a rock 50 meters in diameter will pass closer than normal to our planet. The asteroid, named 2012 DA14 and discovered by a team of astronomers from theEuropean Space Agency(ESA) will travel just 15,000 miles from Earth, closer than many commercial satellites.
As Detlef Koschny, head of the study of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) at ESA’s Office for Space Environment Awareness (SSA) explains, “it will pass at a completely safe distance, but it will get close enough to be possible. observe it with conventional binoculars “.
But, if it will pass so close to Earth, why was its existence not known until now? As Jaime Nomen, one of the astronomers involved in the find, explains, “it is a rather difficult object to observe due to its trajectory in the morning sky, its high angular velocity, its faint brightness and the characteristics of its orbit, which passes well above the orbital plane of the Earth “. In fact, in the words of Nomen himself, “it could have gone completely unnoticed during this visit to our planet .”
And it is that in this discovery Spanish science has played an important role. The asteroid, unknown until now due to its small size, was discovered by the LSSS (La Sagra Sky Survey) observatory located very close to Granada, at about 1,700 meters of altitude. And in the team of astronomers there are several Spaniards involved.
The study of asteroids is fundamental for astronomy and, although scientists have ruled out the impact with our planet, this type of discoveries is essential to observe how the gravitational field of the Moon and our planet affects its trajectory. Exactly on February 15, 2013 will be the day that is closest to us and, although it is only one of the 500,000 objects close to Earth that are estimated to be undiscovered, the passage of the asteroid will serve to increase knowledge about this kind of giant rocks.
