A wee rock skits between the satellites

At http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/2012-da14-a-week-17200-miles/ …. EM Smith is having a look at asteroid 2012DA14 which is due to whizz past the Earth on 15th February – inside the orbit of lots of stuff out there minding their own business, including space junk. It will pass just 17,200 miles from the surface – inside the trajectory of a number of communications satellites. Wow. See also http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130207-asteroid-flyby-ea… …. where we learn the space rock is 150 feet in diameter and scientists are sure it will not present a hazard. It was not spotted until last year – after making a pass much further out in space, some 2.6 million miles away. It is thought to be about the size of the Tunguska object – although there is a certain amount of conjecture involved as some researchers think the Tunguska object skimmed through the top of the atmosphere and escaped, apart from one piece that was blown away above the surface. Chiefio suggests the space rock is about the same size as the object which made the Bassinger crater in Arizona – but we shall have to see.