Asteroid Size of a Small House to Fly Past Earth Next Week

A huge space rock approaching Earth is set to make a relatively close pass next week when it flies by our planet at about one-eighth of the distance to the moon.

Asteroid to dart between moon and Earth. -The asteroid, named 2014 DX110

[An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user @wowforreeel]

An Apollo class asteroid is expected to whizz between the Earth and the moon on March 5. The 98-foot-wide space rock is expected to come within 218,000 miles of earth (0.9 lunar distances), creating quite the site for stargazers.
The asteroid, named 2014 DX110, is expected to make its closest approach at 21:07 GMT on Wednesday at a blistering speed of 14.85 km/s (32,076 mph). Although the space rock poses no threat to earth, it highlights the earth’s susceptibility to near-Earth asteroids.

Russia, US Plan to Jointly Fight Space Threats

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russian and US experts are planning to join efforts in protecting our planet against thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth space bodies, Russia’s emergencies minister said.

“The collision with the Chelyabinsk meteorite last year showed that space threats could be real and as destructive as huge fires or natural disasters on Earth,” Vladimir Puchkov said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta to be published on Tuesday.
The minister said a joint working group would be set up in the near future to develop solutions to counter space threats.

Δέκα φορές υψηλότερος του αναμενομένου ο κίνδυνος πρόσκρουσης αστεροειδή στη Γη./Hazardous asteroids may be more numerous than previously thought, scientists say.

Σήμα κινδύνου για την αύξηση περιστατικών όπως αυτό που συνέβη στο Τσελιάμπινσκ τον περασμένο Φεβρουάριο αφήνοντας πίσω του 1.200 τραυματίες εκπέμπει σχετική μελέτη που δημοσιεύθηκε στο περιοδικό Nature.

Όπως αναφέρουν τα μέλη της επιστημονικής ομάδας που τη συνέταξε, διαστημικοί βράχοι παρόμοιου μεγέθους με αυτόν που εξερράγη πάνω από το Τσελιάμπινσκ εμφανίζονται στην τροχιά της Γης με εκπληκτική συχνότητα.

Γι' αυτό και ζητούν την ενεργοποίηση συστημάτων έγκαιρης προειδοποίησης.

Fighting Asteroids a New Task for Russia’s Space Industry...

MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s space agency has a new mission on its plate: fighting asteroids, the organization’s head said Sunday.
Oleg Ostapenko, chief of the Roscosmos federal space agency, said that meetings had been arranged with the Russian Academy of Sciences to discuss the project and later confer with scientists. “It’s an interesting topic,” he said.

Detecting and combating threatening space rocks is a complex task, Ostapenko added, which may also require teamwork with Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces. The issue “can be solved only within the framework of all our country’s possibilities,” he said.