Asteroid to miss Earth by less than 20,000 miles

Asteroid 2012DA14 is about 40 meters (131 ft) in size, has a mass of 130,000 tons, is traveling relative to the earth at a speed of some 6.3 km/s (14,100 mph) and will miss us by less than 32,000km (20,000 miles) on February 15. If it did hit the earth, the result would be a huge explosion yielding about 2.5 megatons, but asteroid 2012DA14 will not hit our planet in 2013, and probably never will. Despite the lack of a sensational scenario, this close call still warrants our attention-it will allow astronomers to leam a good deal about asteroids, and represents one of the few chanches for ordinary folk to see a asteroid pass really close to earth.
2012DA14 was discoverred an February 22, 2012 by LaSagra Observatory in the mountains of andalusia in southem spain. The find was made about seven days after the asteroid passed within about 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) of earth on its slightly  elliptical 366 day orbit around the sun. This elliptical orbit is slightly titled relative to that of the earth, so that it passes near earthtwice each year.
On February 15 this years, 2012DA14 will make another-extremely close-pass by the earth. The latest calculations show that distance of closest approach will be about 34,100 km (21,200 miles) from the center of the earth, or about 27,700km (17,200 miles) from the earth's surface. this is well bellow our encircling ring of geosynchronous satellites, which orbit at a distance of 42,160 km (26,200 miles) from the earth's center.