Huge asteroid to whiz past Earth on Friday

A 50-metre wide asteroid will whizz past the earth on Friday — closer to the planet than any other asteroid of this size — becoming a much anticipated event for astronomers and stargazers from around the world including the UAE. The asteroid, called 2012 DA14, will pass some 27,630 kilometres above the earth that is well within the range of many geosynchronous communication and weather satellites. It is about 50 metres in size and, according to Nasa, has no chance of hitting the earth and any of the satellites orbiting the earth. Hassan Hariri, the CEO of Dubai Astronomy Group, said Nasa observers reported that a sizable asteroid would fly harmlessly past Earth today at 2.24pm (ET US) and then head away from our planet. “And then we likely won’t see it again for at least a century, after Earth’s gravity slingshots the space rock onto a shorter orbit that takes it closer to the sun,” he added. Quoting an asteroid expert, Donald Yeomans of the Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Hariri said the asteroid, travelling at 13km per second, will pass between the higher orbits of communication satellites and the lower orbits of navigational Global Positioning Satellites (GPS).