:strip_icc():format(jpeg)/kly-media-production/medias/2797334/original/093692500_1557127224-asteroid.jpg "An Asteroid As Big As 2 Ball Fields Passes Earth, The Impact Is Equivalent to 1,000 Nuclear Bombs When It Hits")
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asteroid illustration. (iStockphoto)
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An asteroid 1 mile or 1.6 kilometers wide passed Earth on Friday May 27 with a distance of about 10 times between Earth and the moon.
The asteroid, known as asteroid 7335 (1989 JA), is roughly four times the size of the Empire State Building and is the largest our planet will ever pass by in 2022. The event can be viewed live online via the Virtual Telescope Project, the result of a new collaboration that includes telescopes in Chile, Australia and Rome, as quoted from page Live ScienceMonday (30/5/2022).
“These two live sightings covering JA 1989 were made possible thanks to the new collaboration between the Virtual Telescope Project and the Live Telescope,” founder Gianluca Masi told Space.com.
“They have several telescopes around the planet, under an amazing sky.”
At its closest distance, the asteroid is 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) away and poses no threat to our planet, despite its massive size at 1.1 miles (1.8 km) wide. It was bright enough to be seen in a medium-sized telescope.
Increasing tracking of these relatively small space rocks means we’re getting better at capturing potential impacts before they happen, which is why there seems to be so much space rock we’re passing through these days.
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