Celestial Event 2014: Enormous Asteroid Comes Very Close to Earth on March 5; Where to Watch it Live Online
An enormous asteroid will come very close to earth and move past the planet on Thursday, March 6, 2014 at 8 am (AEDT) and on Wednesday at 21:07 GMT (16:07 EST), according to reports. The asteroid will get close to the planet during its journey between the Earth and moon.
The enormous asteroid to come close to earth is dubbed 2014 DX110. The massive asteroid will come closest when it is within 350,000 km (217,000 mi or 0.9 lunar distances) from Earth.
According to a Daily Mail report, scientists and researchers claim that the asteroid, with the size of "three double decker buses" or 98ft, does not pose a threat of collision. The asteroid will travel at a speed of 33,000 mph or 14.85 km/s.
It is said that the asteroid can be viewed by anyone owning a "decent" telescope, as it provides a magnificent spectacle. The Daily Mail reports that the spectacular sight will be made live to those who want to watch it by the Virtual Telescope Project and Slooh via a "live, online event" which will share "real-time images" of the asteroid passing between the moon and Earth.
"Slooh's asteroid research campaign is gathering momentum with Slooh members using the Slooh robotic telescopes to monitor this huge population of potentially hazardous space rocks. We need to find them before they find us!" told Slooh's technical and research director Paul Cox, as quoted by Fox News.
It is reported that 2014 DX 110 asteroid will make an appearance just a year after "two major near-Earth object (NEO) events" that were noticed on Feb 15, 2013. During last year's asteroid event, an asteroid dubbed 2012 DA14 came close to Earth and was followed by an unexpected explosion of a space rock over a place called Chelyabinsk in Russia. The unanticipated explosion left more than 1,000 people injured due to massive damage caused to buildings and infrastructure in Russia.
"On a practical level, a previously-unknown, undiscovered asteroid seems to hit our planet and cause damage or injury once a century or so, as we witnessed on June 20, 1908 and February 15, 2013. Every few centuries, an even more massive asteroid strikes us—fortunately usually impacting in an ocean or wasteland such an Antarctica," said Bob Berman, a Slooh astronomer, as quoted by Fox News.
Livestream of DX110 event will commence at 20:30 GMT on March 5, 2014 and at 7:30 AEDT on March 6, 2014. Click HERE to view the asteroid passing between the moon and Earth on a Virtual Telescope Web site and click HERE to view the celestial event on the Slooh Web site.