On Sundays, it’s bigger asteroid This year it is flying across Earth at a speed of 77,000 miles per hour.
Space objects that receive mention “Potentially dangerous asteroids” by NASA body But the Planetary Defense Coordination Office is yet to come close.
“We know the 2001 FO32 orbital path around the Sun with great precision, since it was discovered 20 years ago and have been tracked ever since,” Kata paul chodasDirector of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (signal), Which is operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the south California. “There is no chance the asteroid will approach Earth more than 1.25 million miles.”
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The asteroid, which completes one orbit every 810 days, reached its closest point on Sunday, but the rock’s distance is still more than five times the distance between Earth and the island. month.
The close call will allow scientific studies of the asteroid to take place.
He said “Not much is known about this object at this time, so the very close encounter provides a great opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid,” said Lance Penner, principal scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Lucky stargazers might even witness a visit.
“The asteroid will be brighter as it moves in the southern sky.” He said Shodas. “Amateur astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere and in low northern latitudes should be able to spot this asteroid using medium-sized telescopes with a hole at least 8 inches deep at night before the closest approach, but they may need star charts to find it.”
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