It Ain’t Over Yet

By Ed Downs

Yes, February was a real “high five” for both amateur and professional astronomers. Astronomy, often thought of as a “geek” profession (or hobby) by the multitudes who would rather watch late night television as opposed to freezing their tushies off while stooped over a telescope, may reconsider their opinions. Clearly, astronomy is a participative sport that involves loud noises, close calls, frightening damage and reflection upon the many science fiction movies dealing with annihilation by giant meteors, comets or asteroids. And it ain’t over yet!

February started out with excitement as the world waited for the fly-by of asteroid 2012DA14. With a diameter of approximately 160 feet (such objects are seldom spherical); 2012DA14 was expected to pass within 18,000 miles of earth, truly a “near miss,” being inside the orbit of a number of communication satellites. Then, just 16 hours before this asteroid was to buzz our planet, a 10,000 ton meteorite, 55 feet across, ripped into the Earth’s atmosphere over Russia, moving at 44,000 mph. To put that in perspective, moving at that speed one could fly from New York to LA in 4 minutes or cover the distance from the Moon to Earth in about 5.3 hours – our astronauts took 3.5 days to do the same. It exploded 12 to 15 miles above the surface of the earth, creating an air burst of 500 kilotons of TNT (30 times larger than the Hiroshima A-bomb). More than 1,000 people were injured from shattered glass and other debris over a 30-mile radius. This writer was just gearing up to watch the 2012DA14 fly-by when we received a firm reminder that “we are not alone in space.”