Looking for a Middle School Reading Comprehension Worksheet Templates? Download it for free!

Flyby: How Scientists Track Near-Earth Asteroids (1270l) - Middle School Reading Article Friday Worksheet

Vale Middle School Reading Article

Friday Flyby: How Scientists Track Near-Earth Asteroids (1270L)

Instructions: COMPLETE ALL QUESTIONS AND MARGIN NOTES

Read the following article carefully and make notes in the margin as you read.

Your notes should include:

o Comments that show that you understand the article. (A summary or statement of the main

idea of important sections may serve this purpose.)

o Questions you have that show what you are wondering about as you read.

o Notes that differentiate between fact and opinion.

o Observations about how the writer’s strategies (organization, word choice, perspective,

support) and choices affect the article.

Your margin notes are part of your score for this assessment.

Answer the questions carefully in complete sentences unless otherwise instructed.

Student ____________________________Class Period__________________

Friday Flyby: How Scientists Track Near-

Notes on my thoughts,

Earth Asteroids

reactions and questions as I

read:

On Friday (Feb. 15), a space rock approximately the size of the White House

will whiz past Earth, coming as close as 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers) to the

planet — a close call in astronomical terms. But how do scientists track an

asteroid's path?

Telescopes and math. Observations of asteroids and other near-Earth objects are

made optically; in the case of this week's flyby, researchers at Spain's La Sagra

Observatory discovered the asteroid (called 2012 DA14), in February of last

year. Once an astronomer identifies an object, its path can be tracked.

The flight paths of space objects are very predictable, said Mark Boslough, a

physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico who researches

asteroid impacts.

"If you precisely know the location and the speed of something, well then, you

can predict where it's going to be at any time in the future, as long as you don't

go too far out," Boslough said.

2012 DA14 orbits the sun every 368 days, and has approached Earth relatively

closely on approximately an annual basis, according to NASA. The discovery

occurred during one of these approaches, but this year's asteroid flyby will be a

Pappas, S. Friday flyby: How scientists track near-Earth asteroids. LiveScience. February13, 2013.

Flyby: How Scientists Track Near-Earth Asteroids (1270l) - Middle School Reading Article Friday Worksheet