On Campus | Alumni Join international leaders in asteroid and
comet research at the University of Central Florida in Orlando
for a special “viewing party” that will climax with an exclusive
look at the asteroid 2012 DA14 zipping between Earth and
orbiting communication satellites — the closest fly by in
recorded history. Experts say there is no chance the asteroid
will hit Earth, this time. NASA has identified more than 4,700
as potential threats to Earth, some as big as 16 football
fields, so there’s a need to know more about them. Three space
agencies — including NASA — are planning missions to collect
samples from asteroids in the next few year. Should an asteroid
be detected on a collision course with Earth, it will be
critical to know its composition and structure in order to
deflect it. The impact of a small asteroid like DA 14 would
equal the destructive power of an atomic bomb. A larger asteroid
could be catastrophic. Dr. Michael F. A’Hearn, Dr. Harold
Reitsema and UCF Professors Humberto Campins and