Asteroid Trivia: Near-earth Object Facts

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is nearly 150 feet in diameter, and the length of an Olympic-size swimming pool is about 164 feet. Meanwhile, the Mariana Trench hosts the deepest spot in the world’s oceans—it plunges approximately 6.8 miles. Lady Liberty’s nose is four-and-a-half feet long.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 has a mass of around 130,000,000 kg, about 2.5 times that of the RMS Titanic, which had a mass of about 53,149,413 kg, according to the Titanic Artifact Exhibition.

African elephants are much smaller than 2012 DA14. According to the San Diego Zoo, the mass of an African Elephant is up to 6,800 kg. And the moon has a substantially larger mass than 2012 DA14—a whopping 73,476,730,924,573,500,000,000 kg.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass about 17,200 miles above Earth’s surface, which is approximately 70% of the Earth's circumference of 24,873.6 miles.

The moon is an average of 238,855 miles from the Earth. Of the planets in our solar system, none come closer to Earth than Venus, which is about 23.7 million miles away at its nearest approach.

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The correct answer is 368, 317. This suggests that the close approach to Earth caused a reduction in the orbital period of Duende from 368 days to 317 days. This implies that the gravitational interaction between Earth and Duende during the close approach caused a change in Duende's orbit, resulting in a shorter orbital period.

2012 DA14 was discovered by astronomers at La Sagra Observatory in Spain on February 23, 2012.

2012 DA14 passed within 17,200 miles (27,700 km) of Earth’s surface—closer than many geostationary satellites, which orbit at about 22,236 miles (35,786 km).

The close encounter occurred on February 15, 2013, coincidentally the same day as the Chelyabinsk meteor event over Russia.

2012 DA14 sped past Earth at about 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 km/h)—roughly the same speed that satellites travel in low Earth orbit.

Most small near-Earth asteroids like 2012 DA14 are composed of silicate rock and metal, indicating it’s an S-type (stony) asteroid. These are among the most common asteroid types in the inner solar system.