Duck!

So here it comes, Asteroid 2012 DA14 (they couldn't have come up with a snazzier name?) which will flyby just 25,000 kilometres above out heads, the closest-ever known approach by a large near-Earth asteroid. 45 meters across and whizzing past inside the ring of GPS, weather and communications paraphernalia presently in geosynchronous orbit, it'll be 8000 kilometers closer to us than any of those satellites. Not to worry though as researchers say that both the satellites and our planet are safe from impact. Wouldn't want our smartphones out of action. Now that would be a catastrophe!

Lucky Australia will be afforded one of the better views of this non-happening Armageddon. Look under the Southern Cross from 4.30am AEDT. And here you can read about everything you need to know about Asteroid 2012 DA14 (Happy Harbinger?)

The interesting thing about this record event, apart from the cosmic bullet burn suffered by Earth, has been reading about all the asteroid deflection research going on around the world. Bandied about with abandon are plans to use kinetic impactors or gravity tractors, fitting asteroids with rockets, vapourising space rocks to force them to move in a different direction, and painting asteroids white so the pressure of sunlight will force the asteroid into a safer orbit etc. I was amused to read a slightly dismissive quote by a scientist in New Scientist stating that "These are in the realms of science fiction for now" (oh, the insult) but then a few paragraphs later, there was talk of the viability of designing a nuclear missile to blow apart a dangerous asteroid or comet, and a real, upcoming test mission called Deep Impact 2 to smash a spacecraft sans nuclear explosive into a small asteroid. So did that theory go from science fiction to science fact in one rah-rah Hollywood movie? Did the coolness of Bruce Willis give it instant street cred? Just asking on behalf of those other poor, cruelly put-down theories.

Anyway, people of Oz, if you want to get up in just a few hours, look to the Southern Cross and behold the wonders and the dangers and the harsh, arbitrary nature of the universe (just ask the dinosaurs). If somewhere out in the dark beyond, the course of Asteroid 2012 DA14 (Flyby Fred?) had been bumped just a smidge by a piece of cosmic grit or a gravitational tug...