Feb. 13, 2013: NASA Television will provide
commentary starting at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) on Friday, Feb. 15,
during the close, but safe, flyby of a small near-Earth asteroid named
"2012 DA14." NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and
protecting our home planet from them. This flyby will provide a unique
opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.
The half-hour broadcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., will incorporate real-time animation to show
the location of the asteroid in relation to Earth, along with live or
near real-time views of the asteroid from observatories in Australia,
weather permitting.
At the time of its closest approach to Earth at approximately 2:25
p.m. EST (11:25 a.m. PST/ 19:25 UTC), the asteroid will be about 17,150
miles (27,600 kilometers) above Earth's surface. Measuring
approximately 50 meters wide, 2012 DA14 is about half the size of a
football field. Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s,
astronomers have never seen an object this big come so close to our
planet. The asteroid will actually pass closer to Earth than many
manmade satellites.
The commentary will be available via NASA TV and streamed live online at
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
In addition to the commentary, near real-time imagery of the
asteroid's flyby before and after closest approach, made available to
NASA by astronomers in Australia and Europe, weather permitting, will be
streamed beginning at about noon EST (9 a.m. PST) and continuing
through the afternoon at
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
Also, a Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be streamed for
three hours starting at 9 p.m. EST (8 p.m. CST). To view the feed and
ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter, visit
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc
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