Potentially hazardous asteroid 2012 QE50 close encounter: 8 Oct. 2012
The potentially hazardous asteroid 2012 QE50
After asteroid 2012 QG42, on 9 Oct. 2012, the potentially hazardous asteroid 2012 QE50, discovered on 28 Aug. 2012 by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, will approach our planet with a minimum (safe!) distance of 31.5 lunar distances (13 millions of km). This is definitely a SAFE distance, so there is really nothing to worry about this encounter, it will be just a nice show.
The Virtual Telescope provided precious observations at the discovery time, included by the Minor Planet center in the discovery circular.
During this passage, asteroid 2012 QE50 will be relatively bright to be seen with mid-sized telescopes. It will show a quite fast apparent motion across the stars, while its speed relative to the Earth will be of 11.4 km/s. It will be well visible for several days, so a nice chance for observers to spot a near-Earth object!
The Virtual Telescope Project is proud to offer a FREE, online event, showing the asteroid in real time, through its well known technological instruments.
The live event is scheduled for 8 Oct. at 23:00 UT: to join, you just need to enter, at the date/time indicated, our live WebTV page.
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