NASA Discusses Asteroid 2012 DA14 Earth Flyby Today: How to Watch Live

Asteroid 2012 DA14 Earth Flyby Art
This NASA diagram depicts the passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system on Feb. 15, 2013. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA scientists will discuss the upcoming close Earth flyby of the mid-size asteroid 2012 DA14 today (Feb. 7), and you can follow the presentation live online.

Space agency scientists will hold a teleconference on asteroid 2012 DA14 at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) to review the details (and dispel myths) of the asteroid's extremely close encounter with Earth next week on Friday, Feb. 15. The asteroid will approach within 17,200 miles of Earth during the flyby — 5,000 miles closer that communications satellites in geosynchronous orbits — but poses no risk of impact.

You can watch the asteroid 2012 DA14 webcast on SPACE.com here courtesy of NASA's Ustream feed.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered last year and is about 150 feet (45 meters) across. That makes it about half the size of a football field, and about the same size as the space rock that exploded over Siberia, Russia, during the 1908 Tunguska event. [Asteroid 2012 DA14 Photos: Earth Flyby of Feb. 15]

NASA scientists stress, however, that asteroid 2012 DA14 will not hit Earth.

"The flyby creates a unique opportunity for researchers to observe and learn more about asteroids," NASA officials said in an announcement.

Speaking in today's teleconference will be:

  • Timothy Spahr, director, Minor Planet Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
  • Donald Yeomans, manager, NEO Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
  • Amy Mainzer, principal investigator, NEOWISE observatory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator, Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer Asteroid Sample Return Mission, University of Arizona, Tucson

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

Related images will be available at the start of the teleconference at: 
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/telecon20130207.html

You can follow SPACE.com's complete coverage of the asteroid 2012 DA14 flyby here:

Asteroid 2012 DA14 Earth Flyby of Feb. 15: Complete Coverage

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.