Asteroid 2012 KT42
Discovery images of asteroid 2012 KT42. Credit: Catalina Sky Survey/Mt. Lemmon Observatory
Map of Transit
Newly-discovered asteroid 2012 KT42 is flying past Earth today (May 29th) only ~14,000 km above the planet's surface. This means 2012 KT42 will actually fly inside the Clark Belt of geosynchronous satellites. The 3- to 10-meter wide asteroid ranks # 6 on the top 20 list of closest-approachers to Earth. According to the asteroid's orbit, there is no danger of a collision. Even if it did hit, this space rock is too small to cause significant damage. It would likely disintegrate almost entirely in the atmosphere, peppering the ground below with relatively small meteorites.
Note: The close pass will occur at about 07:00 UTC (03:00 EDT, midnight PDT in the US) on May 29
Link: Universe Today
Link: Images from Flyby (courtesy of spaceweather.com)
Link: 2012 KT42 Page from JPL
Link: Blog post ( Remanzacco Observatory in Italy)
Link: Minor Planet Center on 2012 KT42
Link: Wikipedia page
