A massive asteroid known as 1998 QE2 will make its closest approach to the Earth on Friday, May 31, offering a unique viewing opportunity.<\/p>\n
Eyes on the skies Friday around 1:59 pm PST as a 1.7-mile-long asteroid (1998 QE2) makes a flyby of the Earth, coming within 3.6 million miles.\u00a0 Although quite a distance away, this approach will be the closest the space rock will make for at least the next two hundred years, and it should be visible to those with a mid-sized telescope.\u00a0 Asteroid 1998 QE2 was first discovered in August 1998 by astronomers working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Program in New Mexico.<\/p>\n
There is no chance of a collision, but the asteroid will be monitored closely.\u00a0 Some may remember the last time Earth had a \u201cclose encounter\u201d with an asteroid.\u00a0 On February 15, 2013, just hours before the closest-ever predicted approach by an asteroid (2012 DA14 at a mere 17,200 miles above the Earth), a 55-foot, nine-ton meteor<\/a> streaked completely undetected across the skies above Russia\u2019s Ural Mountains and exploded.\u00a0 The airburst from that fireball injured more than 1,500 people and created a sonic boom that damaged thousands of buildings in the region.\u00a0 Known as the Chelyabinsk Meteor<\/a>, it was the largest such explosion since the 1908 Tunguska Event<\/a>.<\/p>\n Astronomers are excited about the opportunity presented by 1998 QE2, and plan to study the asteroid to learn as much as possible about it before it departs back into deep space.\u00a0 According to radar astronomer Lance Benner<\/a>, Principal Investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, \u201cWhenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin.\u00a0 We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid\u2019s distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n But astronomers aren\u2019t the only ones excited about 1998 QE2 and other asteroids. Space.com<\/a> reported on Wednesday that Planetary Resources<\/a>, a privately owned company created to \u201cmine asteroids,\u201d announced plans to develop \u201ca suite of spacecraft, dubbed ARKYD<\/a>, to study solar-system asteroids as a precursor to mining missions.\u201d<\/p>\n Planetary Resources has some very high-profile backers, including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page.\u00a0 Based on strong, positive public response to Planetary Resources\u2019 initial announcement, the company also announced they are launching a \u201ccrowd-funding campaign\u201d on Kickstarter<\/a> to make one of the ARKYD telescopes \u201cavailable for the public\u2019s use.\u201d\u00a0 The campaign is set to run for the next month and hopes to raise $1 million dollars towards the construction and launch of a public-use ARKYD.<\/p>\n Depending on the level of donation, people will be able to have a \u201cspace selfie\u201d portrait taken ($25), help find \u201ckiller asteroids and alien galaxies\u201d ($99), or even control the telescope for a limited amount of time (donations of $200 or more).\u00a0 And if they\u2019re a really big spender ($10,000), Planetary Resources will name a newly discovered asteroid after them!<\/p>\n While NASA continues to hunt the skies for possible hazardous asteroids, the ARKYD program may be an indicator of what\u2019s to come in space exploration.\u00a0 Meanwhile, 1998 QE2 quietly makes its way closer to Earth.\u00a0 Although there is no danger from this asteroid, only about 10 percent of an estimated 10,000 potential \u201ckiller asteroids\u201d have been discovered.\u00a0 And with objects of that size hitting the Earth approximately every 1,000 years, it seems to be simply a matter of time before Earth is struck\u2026again.<\/p>\n