[meteorite-list] Asteroid Discovered by NASA to Pass Earth Safely (2014 HQ124)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2014 15:29:32 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201406062229.s56MTWYk029071_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-178

Asteroid Discovered by NASA to Pass Earth Safely
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 06, 2014

A newfound asteroid will safely pass Earth on June 8 from a distance of
about 777,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers), more than three times
farther away than our moon.

Designated 2014 HQ124, the asteroid was discovered April 23, 2014, by
NASA's NEOWISE mission, a space telescope adapted for scouting the skies
for asteroids and comets. The telescope sees infrared light, which
allows it to pick up the infrared glow of asteroids and obtain better
estimates of their true sizes. The NEOWISE data estimate asteroid 2014
HQ124 to be between 800 and 1,300 feet (250 and 400 meters).

"There is zero chance of an impact," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's
Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. "In fact, it's fairly common for asteroids to pass
near Earth. You'd expect an object about the size of 2014 HQ124 to pass
this close every few years."

More than one hundred follow-up observations from NASA-funded,
ground-based telescopes and amateur astronomers were used to pin down
the orbit of the asteroid out to the year 2200, during which time it
poses no risk to Earth. Its trajectory will continue to be recalculated
past that time frame as additional observations are received.

Yeomans said that 2014 HQ124 is a good target for radar observations
using NASA's Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, and
the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, shortly after the closest
approach on June 8. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and
velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into
the future than otherwise known.

2014 HQ124 is designated a "potentially hazardous asteroid," or PHA,
which refers to those asteroids 460 feet (140 meters) in size or larger
that pass within 4.6 million miles (7.4 million kilometers) of Earth's
orbit around the sun. There are currently 1,484 known PHAs, but none
pose a significant near-term risk of impacting Earth.

"Because NEOWISE is a space telescope observing the dawn and twilight
sky at infrared wavelengths, it is particularly good at finding large
NEOs that make relatively close passes to Earth," said Amy Mainzer, the
principal investigator of NEOWISE at JPL. "Using infrared light, we can
estimate the object's size, and we can tell that it reflects a fair
amount of light. That means it's most likely a stony object."

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing
close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The
Near-Earth Object Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these
objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their orbits to
determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. To date,
U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth
objects.

Along with the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also
partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based
astronomers, and space science institutes across the country that are
working to find, track and understand these objects better, often with
grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA. In
addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur
astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid
orbits after they are found.

JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch

Twitter updates are at:

http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin at jpl.nasa.gov

2014-178
Received on Fri 06 Jun 2014 06:29:32 PM PDT