Categories: Asteroids

Video: Tiny Asteroid 2012 KT42 Crossing The Sky

A few hours ago, asteroid 2012 KT42 passed by Earth at distance of a mere 14,440 kilometers (8,950 miles), the 6th closest pass on record. This is almost three times closer than geosynchronous satellites. Alex Gibbs from the Catalina Sky Survey, the discoverer of this asteroid, created this video of 2012 KT42 during its closest approach to Earth. Don’t panic, Gibbs says, as the video shows the asteroid moving at 2,000 times the actual speed. However, the asteroid was zooming along at 17km/sec (38,000 mph). Each image is a 3 second exposure, during which the object moved, creating a trail. The images were taken on May 29, 2012 between 4:30 and 6:55 UT, the latter being 6 minutes before closest approach. This asteroid was less than 10 meters across, so was far too small to make it through our atmosphere intact, even if it did intersect directly with Earth’s path. Gibbs said the asteroid was a little brighter than expected, but otherwise lived up to its predicted pass distance and size.

Other astrophotographers also got images of 2012 KT42’s close pass. Peter Lake has this 20-second image, very close to the time of closest approach:

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Lake said he actually took 15 images via a robotic telescope, of which only three had the asteroid in them. “That’s how fast it was going,” he said.

(Video Courtesy Alex R. Gibbs, Catalina Sky Survey, University of Arizona, NASA Near-Earth Object Program.)

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

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