Free Republic

Slooh’s robotic telescope attempted to recover the asteroid and share its speedy travels with the world but failed to capture an image at the predicted position. Now nicknamed Moby Dick after the elusive whale in Herman Melville’s novel of the same name, the asteroid’s gone missing in the deep sea of space. Earthlings need fear no peril; it’s not headed in our direction anytime soon. Either the asteroid’s predicted path was in error or the object was much fainter than expected. More likely the former. ... Rather than throwing their hands up in the air, the folks at Slooh are...

...The huge asteroid (which is the size of three football fields) will pass at a safe 8.8 lunar distances from the Earth during its closest approach...

Asteroid to hurtle past the Earth at 27,000 mph A giant "potentially hazardous" asteroid more than three times the size of a football pitch is to hurtle past the Earth at more than 27,000 miles per hour Although the speeding chunk of rock, named 2000 EM26, will be 1.6 million miles away it still represents a close shave for our planet in astronomical terms ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid which is three times the size of a football pitch and travelling at 27,000 miles an hour will pass close to Earth on Monday night. Although the speeding chunk of rock – named...

Near-Earth asteroid 2000 EM26 poses no threat of actually hitting the planet, but the online Slooh Space Camera will track the asteroid as it passes by Earth on Monday. The live Slooh webcast will start at 9 p.m. EST (0200 Feb. 18 GMT), and you can also watch the webcast directly through the Slooh website. You can also watch the asteroid broadcast live on Space.com. Scientists estimate that 2000 EM26 is about 885 feet in diameter, and it is whizzing through the solar system at a break-neck 27,000 mph, according to Slooh. During its closest approach, the asteroid will fly...