NASA: Asteroid flyby can be watched by computer

The long-awaited flyby of the massive asteroid 2012 DA14 on Friday morning won't be visible overhead in California, due to bright sunlight.

But commentary, real-time imagery and a telescopic view of the asteroid can all be seen by computer.

A half-hour commentary broadcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena will be available online starting at 11 a.m. PST via NASA TV and streamed live online at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

Near real-time imagery of the asteroid's flyby before and after its closest approach -- made available to NASA by astronomers in the dark skies of Australia and Europe, weather permitting -- will be streamed beginning about 9 a.m. PST and continuing through the afternoon at this website: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

A Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be streamed for three hours starting at 6 p.m. PST. To view the feed and ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter, visit: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc.

It will be the nearest recorded brush with a such a large space rock, which is estimated to be the size of a 15-story office building.

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