Cool animation showing asteroid DA 14's near miss next year
I wrote about this asteroid earlier this week, and the comments have been pouring in. People are asking if it will hit (no), if the Earth's gravity will change the orbit of DA 14 (yes), have astronomers accounted for that (yes), and will it ever hit us sometime in the future (we don't know; see below). One commenter, Chris Laurel, created a wonderful photo-realistic animation of the pass of the asteroid using software called Cosmographia, and, well, I think it will answer most people's questions and fears:
Isn't that cool? I did some spot checking using the JPL numbers and diagrams, and this looks pretty accurate to me. You can see how it approaches and misses us, and then he backs out a bit to show that the asteroid's path is warped significantly by Earth's gravity. So, to be very clear: next year, in February, this rock will miss us.
I'm sure there will be an organized campaign with observers all over the world to do this. I'll post more about that when I hear more, probably in the next few months.
Related Posts:
- No, asteroid 2012 DA14 will not hit us next year
- Asteroid 2011 AG5: a football-stadium-sized rock to watch carefully
- My asteroid impact talk is now on TED!
- Just to be clear: asteroid YU55 is no danger to Earth
- Media FAIL *again* (HuffPo and Apophis edition)
- Debunking doomsday