“Asteroid”

By Julia on July 30, 2013 • ( 0 )

Get ready to be buzzed by huge asteroid — and you can watch!

17 hours ago

Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project

Orbit Diagram for near-Earth asteroid 2003 DZ15, which makes a close pass by Earth on Monday evening.

An asteroid as large as five football fields will zoom by Earth Monday night, and you can watch the close approach live from the comfort of your home.

The near-Earth asteroid 2003 DZ15 will come within 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) of our planet — about nine times farther than the distance between Earth and the moon — Monday (July 29) at 8:37 p.m. EDT. There is no chance that 2003 DZ15 will strike Earth on this pass, scientists say.

The online Virtual Telescope Project will stream live footage of 2003 DZ15 beginning at 6 p.m. EDT. The webcast will use views from a powerful telescope in Ceccano, Italy, along with live commentary by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, who runs the Virtual Telescope Project. You can watch the feed of 2003 DZ15’s flyby here on SPACE.com, or follow it at the Virtual Telescope Project’s site here.

Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project

This image of near-Earth asteroid 2003 DZ15 was captured by the Virtual Telescope Project’s PlaneWave instrument on Saturday. The asteroid appears as a small white dot in the middle of the photo; the lines are star trails.

The 500-foot-wide (152 meters) asteroid will be too faint for most skywatchers to observe from their backyards, but folks can get a good look on their computer screens. Despite its large size, 2003 DZ15 is still far enough from Earth that it appears as a pinprick of light against a star field as seen by the Virtual Telescope Project instrument.

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