Huge asteroid to pass near Earth tonight

A huge asteroid that astronomers compared to the size of a city block will reportedly zip by so close to Earth tonight that skygazers should be able to witness it live on the web.

The giant space rock, dubbed 2012 LZ1, is roughly 502 metres wide, and will come within 14 "lunar distances" — a measurement of the distance from the Earth to the moon — from our planet.

At such a distance, the team running the high-powered Slooh Space Camera telescope predicts the asteroid will be visible on a live online feed from the Canary Islands. The broadcast of the flyby will be available on Slooh's website starting at 8 p.m. ET, though it won't be detectable by the naked eye.

The celestial event only caught the attention of astronomers days ago, when scientists peered through a telescope and noticed the giant asteroid's flight path, astronomy news website Space.com reported.

Due to its size and proximity to Earth, 2012 LZ1 qualifies as a "potentially hazardous" near-Earth asteroid.

While the 2012 LZ1 will likely come within 5.4 million kilometres of Earth, our planet is not in danger of being struck and asteroid flybys are not an uncommon occurrence.

Last month, for example, the 2012 JU asteroid gave us a closer shave, coming within 191,500 kilometres to our planet. That asteroid was described as about 12 metres wide, or about the size of a school bus.

Back in November, the massive 2005 YU55 asteroid also came within an astronomical whisker of impact with Earth, zooming past about 325,000 kilometres away, and just inside the moon's orbit. That asteroid was described as the size of an aircraft carrier, and was noted as the closest asteroid flyby in 30 years.

- CBCNews

SA joins world astronomy body

Johannesburg - South Africa has joined the international JIVE radio astronomy research institute, the National Research Foundation (NRF) said on Sunday.

This marked a new level of partnership between Europe and South Africa in science, said NRF deputy CEO Dr Gansen Pillay.

"It is expected to act as an additional mechanism in promoting the growth of science in South Africa, with developmental benefits well beyond the field of radio astronomy," he said.

JIVE, or the Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry, is an international institute funded by national research councils in nine countries in Europe and beyond.

It works in various fields of galactic and extragalactic radio astronomy, planetary and space sciences.

South Africa has long provided data to JIVE through its Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Pillay said the NRC's membership of JIVE recognised the country's contribution to European data from the Hartebeesthoek Observatory and the newly built radio astronomy facility KAT-7 in the Karoo.

"We are most excited that this collaboration will aid in promoting South Africa's commitment to the science of astronomy and forge more international science relations," said Pillay.

- SAPA/News24