As is well-known, asteroid 2012 DA14, discovered on Feb 23 2012, will pass close to the Earth on Feb 15 2013.
A few days after its discovery, based on an observed arc of only 7 days, the minimum distance to the Earth’s center on 2013 Feb 15 was calculated to be 0.0001873 AU, yielding a least distance of about 21642 kilometers to the Earth’s surface, bringing the object closer to the Earth than the geostationary satellites.
Five days later, based on an observed 12-day arc, the distance to the Earth’s center was revised to 0.0003149 AU, or 40730 kilometers to the surface.
And now, with an observed arc of 30 days, those numbers are revised to 0.0004653 AU and 63230 km, so the object will remain well OUTSIDE the orbits of the geostationary satellites.
