Notice to astronomers and amateurs : tonight asteroid 2012-DA14 pass near Earth at 7:26 P.M. (London time GMT+00). It will be possible to see with binoculars.
Here are some numbers: 2012-DA14, a near-Earth asteroid discovered a year ago, is 45 meters in diameter and has a mass of about 120 000 tonnes (120 million kilograms). We assure you: this big rock is closer to the earth at about 27,700 km above the ground.
After this passage, the asteroid will change its orbital period: from 368 to 317 days. We won't see him again until 16 February 2046 and will be about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
You can see this event in live thanks to NASA : they have given a link to see in live the passage of DA14. The live begins at 7:00 P.M. (London time). Watch it :
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Or see the passage from an other website, from the Canary Islands :
http://events.slooh.com/
We will show you after some photos taken, in this article, in about one hour.
We should capture asteroids and use them to mine. How? Learn about Planetary Resources: Asteroid Mining Mission Revealed by Planetary Resources, Inc.