You're watching...

Asteroid may make Earth's closest flyby

Details

  • Description

    Phil Keating reports from Miami

  • Duration 3:15
  • Date

Clips

Also in this playlist...

Latest Science

Auto-advance: ON

Auto-advance

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated

Yeah yeah.

Here yeah yeah.

Well.

That is just amazing to watch I mean time and again.

That's a massive meteor we told you about an injured hundreds maybe even more than a thousand.

Dam is about 3000 buildings exploding over Russia earlier today.

That is one event now but it turns out.

-- run play editor -- will soon have another encounter with an asteroid now entirely different deal.

On the screen here what -- scientists say could be the closest flyby.

Of any object in history of this science.

And what -- size it is to even as an asteroid half the size of a football field.

That's more like sixty yards wide here now comes closer.

That even some of our satellites and space circling the planet.

But experts say direct -- will not happen because of the asteroid.

Meteor different deal and -- as we found out -- Keating's revenues are down Miami I suppose nothing's guaranteed though right -- So true -- given mind with the all the tell -- goes looking for this asteroid DA fourteen nobody predicted a meteor.

That of course -- terror over parts of Russia early this morning.

But what he still approaching asteroid which is called DA for twelve -- -- It is still speeding towards earth three and a half hours from its closest point astronomers worldwide are watching but not concerned.

This asteroid about half a football field long or -- -- the size of a twelve story building my best.

The real threat according to the scientific community -- very small -- of communication satellites like the ones we have Fox News -- The -- cigarettes plane is 22000 miles around the earth.

And DA fourteen penetrates that ring at 1:44 eastern.

Coming 171000 miles from earth and and -- is that playing at 324.

Although scientists say the odds of this -- -- which is pretty large hitting a very small satellite.

Nearly impossible but still President Obama and other world leaders have been alerted.

You know -- the whole deal Leo that took out the dinosaurs I mean they they thought it was when these asteroids right.

You know what I got a ways do what's the rest then that they say that this could happen yet again.

Well the odds are it will happen again and in fact sciences and astronomers around the world.

Are looking up and looking out into space all the time and knowledge is growing more and more as the years go -- These monitor those monitoring these near earth objects they say -- about a million asteroids and meteors in -- proximity.

And they are looking up all the time.

We've seen in tracked about 9000 level right now.

And about a thousand album are potentially hazardous so we look at those carefully and it turns out we're safe from those for many hundreds of years.

Iraq decides attributed to the next you know 810 -- -- venture Russia leveled trees and forests for hundreds of miles deal.

Let's hope it hits the -- sometime.

Wow camp Phil thank you Phil Keating on -- --