Science Newsletter #15 - Bournemouth School for Girls

AClose encounterof the rocky kind…Your monthly dose of apocalyptic havoc!By Carli PillipsAs you may ave seen on te news recently, on te 1to Feruary a meteor exploded on top o Russia and onte same day, Eart nearly ad a run in wit a nice igcun o celesal deris As you can imagine, tiscaused uite te sr at te local space agencies, NAAand EA, wo ad expected te asteroid paying us avisit, ut wo were ust as surprised as te Russianseang teir reaast aout te news tat a sonic oomwas to accompany teir eggs and acono wat appened? And ow did all tese acclaimedgenius ol at te internaonal space agencies manageto miss someting lie a meteor colliding wit Eartsatmospere?!Well, lets start wit 1 A14, te asteroid wiccame a lot closer tan anyting else as or a wile:hat is it?It is an asteroid categorized as a NearEart ectNE), wic can give sciensts important clues as tote origin o our solar system and wic could ecomewaystaons or uture exploraon NAA as te aim otat, y studying tese, we can opeully migate potenal NE impacts on Eart, altoug tis statementas received a lot o cricism, as i an asteroid is eadedtowards Eart, tere is not muc NAA would e ale todo aout tatHow close did it get?1 A14 got to aout 17,1 miles or 7,m)away rom Eart eore it started moving away rom teEart on a ground trac rom Central Asia towards teNort Pole It wasnt visile to te naed eye, ut a pairo inoculars could ave seen it is asteroid actuallygot close enoug tat it was witin te geosyncronoussatellite ring, wic is aout , miles out andwere all te weater satellites tend to sitas it close to hing any satellites, and did the astronautson the internaonal space staon see it upclose?NAA and EA ad planned and predicted te route itwas going to tae uite accurately, and it was never atany ris o ing us, te moon, any satellites, or anyting else important As or te internaonal spacestaon all o te occupants were asleep at te me oit passing, as te staon was over Papua New Guineaat te me, so tey didnt see it eiteras it really, really big?Nope It ad a diameter o around 3m, so aout 3mes as wide as your average ouse is is less tanal te size o te internaonal space staon18m)! espite tis, it weigs around 4, metrictons o scale tat to someting youre amiliar wit,lets loo at te doule decer us: ere are, according to one source, around douledecer uses inondon Now, imagine tey are all ull to capacity witpassengers en mulply y , and youre looing ataout te rigt numer o summarise, 1 A14weigs ondons o usy uses!Anything else?Just a ew un acts At its closest, te satellite was onlyaout 1/13t o te distance o te moon rom EartIt was going aout 17,4mp, in a souttonortdirecon in relaon to te Eart e est place to seeit would e Indonesia, were it appeared to moveacross te sy y aout a degree per minute e asteroid was rst discovered aout tis me last year, in