* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Asteroid 2013 RZ53

Blobrana · L

The 1.6 - 3.6 metre wide asteroid 2013 RZ53 will make a close pass (1.9 lunar distances, 0.0049 AU), travelling at 1.56 km/second, to the Earth-Moon system on the 9th September 2014 @ 04:04 UT ±00:20.

The Lunar Distance (LD), the distance between Earth and the Moon, equals 384,401 km, (or 0.00256 AU).

Ephemeris

Date    TT    R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r     Elong.  Phase     Mag
2014 09 08    12 36 36.8 -44 39 24   0.0050621.0046    54.6   125.2    24.9
2014 09 09    12 34 05.2 -34 31 45   0.0049651.0038    44.8   135.0    25.8
2014 09 10    12 31 59.8 -24 13 43   0.0049951.0030    35.2   144.6    27.1
2014 09 11    12 30 13.1 -14 16 20   0.0051501.0022    26.5   153.4    28.8
2014 09 12    12 28 40.2 -05 05 10   0.0054201.0014    19.7   160.2    30.8
2014 09 13    12 27 18.2 +03 05 07   0.0057891.0007    16.1   163.8    32.5
2014 09 14    12 26 05.2 +10 10 30   0.0062391.0000    16.2   163.7    32.6
2014 09 15    12 24 59.6 +16 14 24   0.0067520.9994    18.7   161.1    31.6

Ed ~ Space junk?

Blobrana · L

The 1.6 - 3.6 metre wide asteroid 2013 RZ53 will make a close pass (0.6 lunar distances, 0.0016 AU), travelling at 2.18 km/second, to the Earth-Moon system on the 18th September, 2013 @ 22:53 UT ±00:01.

The Lunar Distance (LD), the distance between Earth and the Moon, equals 384,401 km, (or 0.00256 AU).

Blobrana · L

Newfound asteroid 2013 RZ53 to whizz between Earth and Moon this week

Discovered just two days ago, a small asteroid will be whizzing past the Earth on Wednesday night, coming within two-thirds of the distance to the Moon.
Asteroid 2013 RZ53 was found early Friday morning by astronomers working at the Steward Observatory, at the University of Arizona, as part of the Catalina Sky Survey. Astronomers from Australia and Illinois helped to track the asteroid and found that it's about three metres wide, its orbit is very close to Earth's, and it even flies along with us as we make our way around the Sun. On Wednesday night, 2013 RZ53 will come within 0.6 lunar distances of Earth, or roughly 230,000 kilometres.
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