5Cy元5W7gz- NASA Asteroid Watch April 19, 2017Īnd how close is “very close”? NASA says this rock will come about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Earth. We viewed it w/ radar data today, from 1.9 million miles away. That’s 670 yards (613 meters), or about the length of six NFL football fields.Īsteroid 2014 JO25 will safely pass Earth tomorrow. Measurements i ndicate the asteroid is about 2,000 feet (650 meters) in size.

That’s about 670 yards (613 meters), or about the length of six NFL football fields. What size are we talking about? Measurements taken by NASA’s NEOWISE space probe indicate the asteroid is about 2,000 feet (650 meters) in size. “Although there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size,” NASA said in a statement. Radar images obtained by NASA a day earlier show a peanut-shaped asteroid that rotates about once every five hours. The chances of it pounding our planet and leaving us for the dead? Zero, experts say. The space rock, known by the very dull name of 2014 JO25 will safely fly by Earth on April 19, according to NASA.

Soon-well, okay, make that roughly ten or 15 years-we may have some answers, thanks to Lucy.A large asteroid is hurtling toward Earth – but there’s no need to duck and cover. Ultimately, understanding how these rocky, icy bodies came to rest in their current orbits could help researchers understand, in more granular detail, exactly what happened as the solar system began to take shape. Throughout the duration of its roughly 12-year primary mission- the longest of any NASA mission yet-the spacecraft will only spend a total of about 24 hours collecting data.Ĭomparing the compositions of both clusters of asteroids (which seem to differ slightly based on current observations) could shed light on what elements were present when they formed. Lucy is equipped with a suite of high-tech instruments, including the hybrid imager-infrared spectrometer, L'Ralph (which will probe the chemical composition of each asteroid's surface) and black-and-white cameras that researchers will use to analyze the asteroids' surface features, like craters. NASA Is About to Study Some Awfully Old Asteroids.Asteroid-Exploring Lucy Gets Design Approval.NASA's Plan to Navigate Jupiter's Asteroid Fields.These asteroids-the largest of which, 624 Hektor, is observed to be almost 140 miles across-are leftovers from the formation of the solar system roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Our solar system's largest planet is flanked on both sides by a massive cluster of asteroids. This will be the first mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. The Lucy mission (which has notably escaped the clutches of NASA's acronym machine) is named for the fossilized Australopithecus afarensis skeleton nicknamed 'Lucy.' In the same way that this Lucy, one of the best-known early human species, helped anthropologists unlock the secrets of our evolution shortly after its discovery in 1974, NASA hopes that the Lucy asteroid mission will help us better understand the evolution of our solar system. (which you can watch here or in the video at the top of this story). NASA will begin live-stream coverage of the launch at 5:00 a.m. If all goes according to plan, the 3,000-pound spacecraft, tucked within a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, will liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:34 a.m. It will be the space agency's longest mission yet. NASA's Lucy mission, destined to explore the Trojan asteroids that surround Jupiter, is scheduled to launch bright and early on Saturday morning.

This is the first mission to study the ancient asteroid clusters.The mission is designed to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids-named for famous characters from Greek Mythology-which flank the gas giant along its orbit.on Saturday, NASA's Lucy mission is scheduled to launch from the Florida Space Coast region.

Nasa asteroid watch