Where can you see the asteroid? Asteroid TC4 - where it will fall. Where and when can you observe with a telescope?

A large asteroid called 2012 TC4 is rapidly approaching Earth. Where a meteorite will fall, if it doesn’t fly by? While the attention of astronomers around the world is focused on this celestial body, the world is making one after another guesses about the end of the world. Will TC4 put an end to all life on Earth?

Asteroid 2012 TC4 – what is it? Where will it fall in October 2017 and will it fall at all?

The asteroid is 10 to 30 feet tall, so far you know it better. What material it is made of is also not very sure. The asteroid has its name because it is located on. Christina Zerbe, Chairman of the Astronomical Association Augsburg. For comparison, the Moon is almost 000 kilometers away.

No, says expert Zerbe in advance. He was too small to see it with the naked eye. Why is the asteroid important to scientists? Because it is clear to experts that he will not always remain with the span. What can we do when heavenly body Will the earth become dangerous?

Asteroid 2012 TC4 was most accurately studied in 2012, when it once again passed by Earth. In 2015, calculations yielded shocking data: an asteroid will pass in frighteningly close proximity to our planet in 2017. The portal Astwowatch reported about this, and now, as the asteroid approaches the Earth’s orbit, people are talking about it more often.

Experts believe that if a large and potentially dangerous celestial organism approaches the earth, current control options typically require several years to a decade to take preventative measures. "The obvious option would be kinetic impact," says Rüdiger Jahn of the European Space Flight Control Centre.

Most stars in the sky move very slowly, you wouldn't notice any significant changes even if you watched them your whole life. But some objects are much closer to Earth, which causes them to move much faster across the night sky. Planets move in the sky - the word "planet" comes from the Greek word for "wanderer." If you look carefully, you will see that the planets are moving one night after another. With a large telescope, you can see the planets moving right in front of you!

On this moment its dimensions are known - approximately. As the source notes, the meteorite has an elongated shape up to 40 meters in diameter. For comparison: the famous " Chelyabinsk meteorite"was 17 meters long.

The problem is that it is impossible to say for sure whether an asteroid will collide with Earth. At the moment, astronomers have not been able to assess and study the threat thoroughly. It is now unknown what the celestial body that threatens us consists of. Meanwhile, if it is a rocky meteorite with an ice core, it will burn up in the atmosphere and remain practically unnoticed. It’s another matter if the space guest is a combination of space rocks and metal. In this case, the area of ​​impact will be unrecognizable - the shock wave and debris will cause enormous damage within a radius of tens of kilometers and will leave a huge crater at the epicenter. Then experts will be able to study it with passion, if they are alive, of course.

Planets are the largest and most famous objects that move in the sky. But when our solar systems formed, they didn't all come together to form planets. If a planet tried to form near Jupiter, it would be torn apart by Jupiter's enormous gravity. Thus, there is a lot of debris in the solar system, most of which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

At first he thought he had discovered a comet. But after calculating the orbit, he realized that he had found an entirely new type of object between Mars and Jupiter. Most asteroids are small pieces of rock a few kilometers in diameter. The largest of them is called Ceres and has a diameter of 900 km. But large asteroids rare: only 26 known asteroids with a diameter of more than 200 km. The total mass of all asteroids is probably on the order of the mass of the Moon.

According to an expert interviewed by AiF, asteroid 2012 TC4 can fly 115 thousand kilometers from Earth.

Such a meteorite could only be seen through a powerful infrared telescope.

The flight path of asteroid 2012 TC4 will be “tangential” from the Earth. Considering the trajectory, size and distance of the flight path from Earth, there is nothing to worry about. The only danger is that the “space friend” has been little studied and all forecasts are made with an error.

Asteroids are so close that they move quickly in the sky. If the asteroid is close enough, it appears to move between the filters. You can see the fast moving asteroid while images are extracted from each filter. Notice how the red line is next to the green line and the blue line is further away. Computer images are created by combining red, green and blue shapes.

Note the marks in the upper left corners of the center squares. Thus, there is more time between red and blue images than between green and red images. During this time, the asteroid moves more. This is why the blue trail is so far away from the other trails in the picture above. Most asteroids move much slower than shown above. For a given asteroid that is moving slowly, you will see what appears to be a yellow dot next to a blue dot! The asteroid is a brown dot moving through the animation.

Where will 2012 TC4 fall if it reaches Earth?- It’s too early to judge this. More accurate data will appear after astronomers study the composition of the asteroid.


At the moment, the date of the closest approach of asteroid 2012 TC4 to the Earth is October 12, 2017 at 5:41 UTC.

So this animation tells you how to find asteroids - just look for the yellow dot near the blue dot! As we know, everything in the Universe is relative, and especially the concept of distance. It orbits the Sun for just under three years, approaching our star, inside the orbit of Mercury, and beyond Mars, close to Jupiter.

Amateur astronomers will monitor the asteroid all night

But above all, this asteroid with a diameter of about 600 meters regularly crosses the Earth's orbit and may one day collide with it. However, on an astronomical scale this distance is small, accounting for about 1% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Compare: when Venus and Mars are as close as possible to Earth, they are respectively 41 and 56 million kilometers.

Let us recall that the last large-scale incident of a meteorite colliding with the Earth occurred on February 15, 2013 in Chelyabinsk. The famous “Chelyabinsk meteorite” thundered not only in Chelyabinsk, making it even more severe, but throughout the world.

Conspiracy theorists have again started talking about a new “end of the world”, which, according to them, awaits us on October 12, 2017. According to researchers, the apocalypse will bring asteroid 2012 TC4, discovered back in 2012.

However, there will be no chance of a large object hitting Earth in the coming decades, as asteroid monitoring programs record all large quantity these millions of remnants of education solar system. Astronomers will use their passage near us to observe it in detail. The telescopes will be aimed at the small object to better understand its composition. The Goldstone and Arecibo radio telescopes in the United States of America for use as radar to scan the star and to image its surface.

According to experts, the diameter of the celestial body is different estimates, ranges from 12 to 40 meters. According to calculations, it will be on October 12, 2017 that it will approach the Earth at a dangerous distance, less than the “clearance” between the Earth and the Moon. Conspiracy theorists claim that if a celestial body falls, we will face the “end of the world.”

Asteroid TC4 - where it will fall

It is known that asteroid 2012 TC4 already flew past our planet at a distance of approximately 94,800 km in 2012. Calculations have shown that this year the celestial body will be even closer to us.

Will we look up to see an asteroid behind the Moon? Only amateur astronomers with small telescopes will be able to follow the asteroid's trajectory among the Cepheus constellations. Ursa Major, Berenice's hair, the next night before he plunged into the dark ocean of space. Mainly because it Exact size and the distance traveled by the Earth have not been accurately determined for a long time. However, it is known that the closest one to Earth will be October 12.

Rarely has such a large asteroid been so close

Simulation under the guidance of a doctor. Comparable results were obtained at other research centers. He also noted that the distance between the Earth and the Moon is about 400,000. km. Therefore, the asteroid will be almost 8 times less than the distance to our natural satellite.


There are no known cases of asteroid collisions with the Earth. In this case, scientists also do not observe a 100% threat. The concern is caused by two factors: the proximity of its trajectory and our planet, and also the fact that the asteroid has not been sufficiently studied, and therefore it is not possible to clearly predict its behavior.

Earlier estimates were not as accurate. Now - after several consecutive months of asteroid observations - more predictions can be made. Strong winds and shock waves will be the biggest threat to humans after asteroids hit Earth, researchers say in Geophysical Research. According to their calculations, these two phenomena will account for up to 60 percent of deaths. read more.

The more observations we have, the more accurately we can predict its orbit. Then - because it was a small object - it was not observed. And now that it is visible again, more precise observations can be made,” Dr. Weier explained. Probably, many fragments would have burst into the atmosphere, like the object in Chelyabinsk,” commented Dr. Weyer.

The only indisputable fact is that even just flying past, cosmic body may have a negative impact on the Earth. It can provoke earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters. If it falls, our Earth will definitely face global catastrophes. And the place where he falls will be decisive whether he can survive at all.

Although they were burned 29 kilometers above the ground, hundreds of people were injured and thousands of buildings were destroyed. It passed the Earth at a distance of 87 thousand kilometers at 20:00 Polish time. However, this did not pose a threat to us.

This is quite late, which may mean that detection of similar space objects needs to be improved. Thousands of others, similar or smaller in size, are located near the Earth. Based on this object, astronomers are currently conducting experiments to help track asteroids. More accurate observations were made by scientists only in the summer, when the asteroid approached Earth.

Nothing can be said with certainty about the possibility of its fall. Astronomers do not make any predictions, since they do not know whether it will fall at all, and if it falls, where. First of all, this happens because the totality of the data they have suggests that a collision will not occur. An asteroid flying past can be seen through a telescope.


The flight path of asteroid 2012 TC4 will be “tangential” from the Earth. Considering the trajectory, size and distance of the flight path from Earth, there is nothing to worry about. The only danger is that the “space friend” has been little studied and all forecasts are made with an error.

Where will 2012 TC4 fall if it reaches Earth?– it’s too early to judge this. More accurate data will appear after astronomers study the composition of the asteroid.


At the moment, the date of the closest approach of asteroid 2012 TC4 to the Earth is October 12, 2017 at 5:41 UTC.

Let us recall that the last large-scale incident of a meteorite colliding with the Earth occurred on February 15, 2013 in Chelyabinsk. The famous “Chelyabinsk meteorite” thundered not only in Chelyabinsk, making it even more severe, but throughout the world.