On the evening of September 13-14, two asteroids classified as “Potentially Hazardous” streaked past Earth with no potential of impacting the planet. Asteroid 2012 QC8, with a diameter of one kilometer, passed at 23 lunar distances (8.7 million km). Asteroid 2012 QG42, with dimensions of 190-430 meters, passed within 7.5 lunar distances at 2.8 million km.
Asteroid 2012 QG42, was the closer target, is easier to catch sight of – although with a brightness about the same as Pluto’s a telescope is required. Once again, online observatory Slooh hosted a viewing of the closest approach. The asteroid was just discovered on August 26 and is a reminder that continued efforts are required to identify near Earth objects that could pose a threat to the planet or its orbital installations.
Below, a recap of Slooh’s coverage of 2012 QG42’s closest approach (from 3:30):
![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)
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