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                Earthlings Expect Massive Asteroid Flyby Friday

   by Suzanne Presto

   Asteroid 1998 QE2's closest approach to Earth is May 31 at 20:59 UTC.
   It will be another 200 years before the[1] huge asteroid 1998 QE2 will
   be as close to Earth as it will be this Friday, May 31.

   The U.S. space agency, NASA, says the 2.7 kilometer-wide asteroid poses
   no threat because, even at its closest, it will be 5.8 million
   kilometers from Earth. That's about 15 times the distance between the
   Earth and the moon.
   NASA video of asteroid
   Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet
   Propulsion Laboratory in California says the asteroid was discovered 15
   years ago.
   "It's one of the initial successes of our efforts to find the big
   asteroids that could hit the Earth and cause global catastrophe, so
   it's certainly one to keep an eye on, and we know it's passing at a
   comfortable distance," he said.

   Chodas adds that asteroid 1998 QE2 is not named for anything on this
   planet.

   "It's not named after the ocean liner. It's not named after Queen
   Elizabeth the Second," he said. "It's a standard asteroid name."
   Asteroid names include the year the space rock was detected, along with
   an alphanumeric code indicating which month and when in the month it
   was discovered.
   Studying "a Visitor From Deep Space"
   Scientists are excited about the asteroid's pass by our planet because
   it offers an opportunity to study what Chodas described as "a visitor
   from deep space."
   Astronomers will use NASA's Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone,
   California, and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to study the
   asteroid through June 9. Radar imaging will help scientists better
   understand the asteroid's orbit, size, shape, rotation and surface
   features.
   So far, radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 have revealed the asteroid
   has a 600-meter-wide satellite or moon.
   The flyby also raises awareness of the millions of space rocks that are
   whizzing near our planet.
   NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently announced plans to develop a
   mission to identify, capture and move an asteroid. He said such a
   mission could help change his answer to a question he often hears.
   "Can we protect the planet? The answer to that is 'no' right now," he
   said. "But if we're able to demonstrate that humans are able to
   redirect an asteroid or deflect it in some slight way, we may be
   getting close to the day that we say, 'yes, we can protect the
   planet.'"
   NASA estimates it has catalogued 95 percent of near-Earth asteroids
   that are larger than one kilometer. It says it has found nothing this
   size that poses a threat to our planet in the foreseeable future.
   In February of this year, a small meteor unexpectedly exploded over
   Chelyabinsk, Russia, and produced a shockwave that shattered thousands
   of windows and injured more than 1,000 people.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/earthlings-expect-massive-asteroid-fl
   y-by-friday/1672036.html

References

   1. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130530.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/earthlings-expect-massive-asteroid-fly-by-friday/1672036.html