NASA to Host Feb. 7 Media Telecon on Asteroid Flyby

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST), on Thursday, Feb. 7, to discuss an asteroid, 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter, that will pass close, but safely, by Earth on Feb. 15. The flyby creates a unique opportunity for researchers to observe and learn more about asteroids.

The teleconference participants are:

–Lindley Johnson, program executive, Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
–Timothy Spahr, director, Minor Planet Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
–Donald Yeomans, manager, NEO Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
–Amy Mainzer, principal investigator, NEOWISE observatory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
–Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator, Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer Asteroid Sample Return Mission, University of Arizona, Tucson

Reporters can obtain dial-in information by sending an email to Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov by noon Thursday. Requests must include the reporter’s name, affiliation and telephone number.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio .

Related images for the teleconference will be available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/telecon20130207.html .

For detailed information concerning the Earth flyby of 2012 DA14, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html .

A Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be broadcast from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. PST (9 p.m. to midnight EST) on Feb. 15. To view the feed and ask researchers questions via Twitter about the flyby, visit: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc .