A bizarre coincidence saw Earth hit by one asteroid and narrowly missed by another on the same day. The unconnected events took place on Friday 15th February.

At 9.20 am local time hundreds of residents in the Siberian region of Chelyabinsk witnessed a large meteor crashing through Earth’s atmosphere before exploding high in the sky. The resulting shockwave caused injuries to over a thousand people mainly through the shattering of glass windows.

NASA has estimated the mass of the asteroid at just over 10,000 tons with a diameter of approximately 15 meters, making it the largest meteor to strike Earth in a hundred years. Luckily for scientists the event was recorded by many of the witnesses providing invaluable data for research.

Ten hours later Asteroid 2012 DA14 made its closest approach to Earth, passing at just 17,200 miles (27,700 km). The asteroid passed well within the orbit of geostationary satellites and came more than 10 times closer to Earth than the moon. The asteroid wasn’t visible to the naked eye but was witnessed by people around the world with the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is around 45 meters in diameter, 3 times larger than the one that hit Chelyabinsk. It is thought DA14 is similar in size to the asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908, known as the Tunguska Event. That asteroid was far more devastating than the one that hit Chelyabinsk, destroying an area of around 2,000 square kilometers, which is the size of a large city.

www.solarsystemquick.com

Double Asteroid Scare For Earth

NGC 6872 - Largest Spiral Galaxy

Nearby Planetary System Discovered