KONTAN.CO.ID – The largest asteroid made its closest approach to Earth on Sunday (21/3). However, these giant extraterrestrials pose no threat to the planet.
The asteroid, which the researchers call 2001 FO32, is several hundred meters in diameter and approaches Earth at a distance of about two million kilometers, the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says.
That distance is more than five times the distance from Earth to the moon.
“(The asteroid) is stable, not on a risky path,” Detlef Koschny, an asteroid expert at the European Space Agency, told the news agency. DPA, as quoted Al Jazeera.
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“We know the 2001 FO32 orbital path around the sun with great accuracy, since it was discovered 20 years ago and since then it has been tracked,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which is run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This particular asteroid, which orbits the sun every 810 days, flies past Earth at a speed of about 124,000 km per hour.
After its harmless visit on Sunday, 2001 FO32 continues its lonely journey and will not approach Earth again until 2052, NASA revealed.
Scientists use flyby to study the asteroid more closely.
“We don’t know much about that,” said Koschny, adding that a closer look at FO32 2001 will help astronomers working on asteroid deflection projects.
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