Giant Kill Rock!

[sandbender]

Today is 'Giant Kill Rock' day!

'...An asteroid as large as an Olympic swimming pool will race past the Earth on Friday at a distance of just 27,700km (17,200mi) - the closest ever predicted for an object of that size...'

It will miss, but with clear skies you should be able to see it zip past.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21442863

[video=youtube;s4VlruVG81w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4VlruVG81w[/video]

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Caused a meteorite shower in a few places in Russia particuarly in the Urals................quite a bit of material damage & over 200 people injured at the time of posting.


Good old youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aufxsBG1KsE

 

[Chillistarr]

Russian meteor unrelated to tonight's fly-by of asteroid 2012DA14 - wrong direction and at the wrong time. Good round-up of YouTube videos of the Chelyabinsk meteor can be found herehttp://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/02142336-breaking-meteor-fall-causes.html though I suggest for some of them you keep your speaker volume down, as the "explosion" (shockwave from multiple sonic booms) is pretty loud - most of the injuries reported so far are from flying glass blown out by the shockwave.

 

[resnikov]

That's rather impressive and a quite a bit scary!

 

[BJJJ]

just added an umbrella to my kit list

 

[crosslandkelly]

just added an umbrella to my kit list

A large one I hope.

 

[HillBill]

Bet that was pretty damn scary.

Caused a meteorite shower in a few places in Russia particuarly in the Urals................quite a bit of material damage & over 200 people injured at the time of posting.


Good old youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aufxsBG1KsE

 

[dwardo]

Hope to get a good view tonight. Not too good a view mind.

 

[Shewie]

Does anyone know which way we're supposed to be looking tonight, it's gonna be brief and I don't want to miss it.

And don't say up

 

[nuggets]

I heard the southern hemisphere -australia- was going to get the best vantage point ???

 

[Chillistarr]

Hello, for the pass of the asteroid this evening, http://www.heavens-above.com/2012da14.aspx?lat=55.9491&lng=-3.161075&loc=Edinburgh&alt=17&tz=GMT gives you the times and directions. That is for Edinburgh, but you can easily tweak it for where you are. It's going to be faint, so you'll need at least binoculars and access to a nice dark, clear sky to see it.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

from bbc site

 

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Hope to get a good view tonight. Not too good a view mind.

On BBC north west tonight, a outdoors enthusiast has a close encounter with a space rock *cut's to picture of your legs sticking out from under the rock*

 

[wattsy]

Caused a meteorite shower in a few places in Russia particuarly in the Urals................quite a bit of material damage & over 200 people injured at the time of posting.


Good old youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aufxsBG1KsE

actually that meteorite came from a completely different direction and is unrelated to the near miss tonight

 

[ged]

Does anyone know which way we're supposed to be looking tonight, it's gonna be brief and I don't want to miss it.

And don't say up

I've just sent a correction to the BBC for their article. Their caption says "where in the southern sky to try to spot 2012DA14" but it will actually be north of east from the UK at about 20:30.

See the Jodrell Bank star map for a good indication of where to see it:

http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/Feb15-13.jpg

 

[Swallow]

Surely this just a cynical marketing ploy for the launch of the new Bruce Willis film tonight, by simulating the plot of Armegeddon?

 

[ged]

Oh, and just in case you think that this is a very unnusual rock:

http://www.arm.ac.uk/neos/anim.html

http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/Animations/Animations.html

 

[HillBill]

The count is at 524 injured now.

http://news.sky.com/story/1052514/meteorite-shower-hits-russia-injuring-524

Caused a meteorite shower in a few places in Russia particuarly in the Urals................quite a bit of material damage & over 200 people injured at the time of posting.


Good old youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aufxsBG1KsE

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

im not convinced its a meteor though. space debris gets my vote. too much smoke coming off them

 

[Laurentius]

Conspiracy therists are already linking it with the lightning strike on St Peter's and the Pope's resignation. What is the world coming too?