Close asteroid will be visible to naked eye

An asteroid expected to fly past Earth in 2029 will be visible to the naked eye, scientists projected Thursday.

It's a once-in-a-millennium event. And you may want to buy plane tickets now, as the flyby will be visible only from Europe, Africa and western Asia.

There has been no event like this in modern history. Some people have seen dramatic fireballs created by small space rocks blazing through Earth's atmosphere. And two house-sized asteroids have made closer passes. But they were not visible without telescopes.

The 2029 event will be the closest brush by a good-sized asteroid known to occur. The rock will pass Earth inside the orbits of some satellites. No other asteroid has ever been clearly visible to the unaided eye.

The asteroid is roughly estimated to be a little more than 1,000 feet (320 meters) wide

www.space.com...

Although this asteroid is not going to hit, it's going to be pretty close. Would be very cool to actually see it...I'm heading for Europe in 2029!



[edit on 4-2-2005 by sensfan]

Wanted to add this. At it's closest, it will be inside the orbit of some sattelites...

On April 13, 2029, it will be about 22,600 miles (36,350 kilometers) from Earth's center. That is just below the altitude of geosynchronous satellites, which hover in fixed perches above the planet to communicate with and collect data on half the globe at all times.

I guess I'll have to mark that day to calendar as cloudy.

They don't say what time of day fly-by occurs... you won't see it if it isn't dark.
Same goes for those ones living in cities, you better plan to make trip to outside all that excessive lightning.

Considering speed how fast it moves best tool might be big binoculars... with telescope following it would be hard.
(unless you use some sky chart software to control it)