Tuesday, January 31, asteroid 433 Eros will come closer to Earth than it has in 37 years

Asteroid To Make Closest Approach Since 1975

by JASON MAJOR on JANUARY 30, 2012

Asteroid 433 Eros as seen by NASA's NEAR spacecraft on Feb. 29, 2000. (NASA/JPL/JHUAPL)

On Tuesday, January 31, asteroid 433 Eros will come closer to Earth than it has in 37 years, traveling across the night sky in the constellations Leo, Sextans and Hydra. At its closest pass of 16.6 million miles (26.7 million km) the relatively bright 21-mile (34-km) -wide asteroid will be visible with even modest backyard telescopes, approaching magnitude 8, possibly even 7. It hasn’t come this close since 1975, and won’t do so again until 2056!

433 Eros is an S-type asteroid, signifying a composition of magnesium silicates and iron. S-types make up about 17 percent of known asteroids and are some of the brightest, with albedos (reflectivity) in the range of 0.10 – 0.22. S-type asteroids are most common in the inner asteroid belt and, as in the case of Eros, can even pass within the orbit of Mars.

Occasionally Eros’ orbit brings it close enough to Earth that it can be spotted with amateur telescopes. 2012 will be one of those times.

Eros was discovered on August 13, 1898, by astronomers Carl Gustav Witt in Berlin and Auguste Charlois in Nice. When Eros’ orbit was calculated it was seen to be an elongated oval that brought it within the orbit of Mars. This allowed for good observations of the bright asteroid, and eventually led to more accurate estimates of the distance from Earth to the Sun.

In February 2000 NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft approached Eros, established orbit and made a soft landing on its surface, the first mission ever to do so. While in orbit NEAR took over 160,000 images of Eros’ surface, identifying over 100,000 craters, a million house-sized boulders (give or take a few) and helped researchers conclude that the cashew-shaped Eros is a solid object rather than a “rubble pile” held together by gravity.

View NEAR images of Eros’ surface.

Studying pristine objects like Eros gives insight into the earliest days of our solar system, and also allows scientists to better understand asteroid compositions… which is invaluable information when deciding how best to avoid any potential future impacts.

Orbit of 433 Eros for Jan. 31, 2012

Although Eros will be making a “close” approach to Earth on Jan. 31/Feb. 1, there is no danger of a collision. It will still remain at a very respectable distance of about 16.6 million miles (26.7 million km), or 0.178 AU. This is over 80 times the distance of the much smaller 2005 YU55, which safely passed within a lunar orbit radius on November 8, 2011.

If you do want to try viewing 433 Eros as it passes, you can find a diagram charting its pathfrom Sky and Telescope here. According to the Sydney Observatory’s website “the coordinates on 31 January (from the BAA 2012 Handbook) are 10 hours 33 minutes 19.0 seconds RA and -4° 48’ 23” declination. On 10 February the RA is 10 hours 20 minutes 27.6 seconds and the declination is -14° 38’ 49 seconds.”

Also there’s an updated chart on Heavens Above showing Eros’ current position.

Eros should remain visible up until Feb. 10.

Thanks to Skyscrapers, Inc., for a report on 433 Eros by Glenn Chaple. Skyscrapers, Inc. is an amateur astronomy society in Rhode Island that operates the Seagrave Observatory, whose centerpiece is a beautiful 8 1/4″ Alvan Clark telescope built in 1878. I saw Halley’s Comet through that telescope in 1986 and have been hooked on astronomy ever since

SOURCE:

NEA Eros: On January 31, 2012, Eros will pass the Earth

Visibility from Earth

The asteroid is named after the greek god of Love, Eros.

On January 31, 2012, Eros will pass the Earth at 0.17867 AU (26,729,000 km; 16,608,000 mi),^[11][12]about 70 times the distance to the Moon, with a visual magnitude of +8.1.^[13] During rare oppositions, every 81 years, such as in 1975 and 2056, Eros can reach a magnitude of +7.0,^[3] which is brighter thanNeptune and brighter than any main-belt asteroid except 4 Vesta and, rarely, 2 Pallas and 7 Iris. Under this condition, the asteroid actually appears to stop, but unlike the normal condition for a body in heliocentric conjunction with the Earth, it never appears to be retrograde. Its synodic period of over 846 earth days is among the largest of any body in the Solar System.

433 Eros is a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) discovered in 1898, and the first asteroid to be orbited by a probe (in 2000). It is an S-type asteroid approximately 34.4×11.2×11.2 km in size, the second-largest NEA after 1036 Ganymed, and belongs to the Amor group.

Some quick facts about 433 Eros:

• Eros is the first near-Earth asteroid that we've discovered. It was discovered by Carl Witt on August 13. 1898.
• The asteroid is named after the greek god of Love, Eros.
• Eros is a Type-S asteroid, meaning it consists of stony composition. About 17% of discovered asteroids are of Type-S, which is the second most common type after Type-C(about 75%).
• The temperature on Eros varies from -150 Celsius to 100 Celsius.
• Eros is not round, but instead has a strange peanut like shape, which rotates every 5.27 hours.
• Eros' dimension is 34.4*11.2*11.2 kilometers, making it the second largest near-Earth asteroid after 1036 Ganymed.
• Eros orbits mostly between the Earth and Mars about 172,800,000 kilometers away from the Sun.
• Eros has been visited by a spacecraft called NEAR-Shoemaker. NEAR-Shoemaker launched February 17. 1996 and was placed in orbit around Eros on February 13. 2000. The spacecraft landed on Eros February 12. 2001 and shut down February 28. 2001. NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft ever to land on an asteroid.

Eros will pass Earth on January 31. 2012 about 16.6 million miles away, which is about 70 times the distance to the moon. It's therefore highly unlikely that it will have any impact on Earth, indirectly or directly.

So Eros wont hit Earth, but there are more important issues related to the year 2012 you should know about. Click Here to learn the truth about whats really going to happen in the year 2012: 

Where well-meaning “experts” went wrong...and why governments of the world ultimatley decided not to tell you the truth.

For Immediate Release:This is not another “sky is falling” warning like y2k...
It's not some made up event by conspiracy theorist. And it's certainly
not something dreamt up for a Hollywood movie...