“Asteroid 2008 OS7 will be closest to Earth today (Friday, February 2). The time of the closest flyby, calculated relative to the center of the Earth, will occur at 15:40 CET,” Petr Pravec from the Interplanetary Matter Department of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic confirmed for Novinky.
This estimated 210 to 480 meter-sized asteroid will reach its shortest distance from Earth, which is approximately 2.8 million kilometers, according to information from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the American space agency NASA.
There are no risks for us, he assures, referring to the NASA project The Virtual Telescope, which monitors the asteroid’s journey live. The project was founded by the Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi.
Astronomers were excited by the predicted demise of the asteroid near Berlin. The car was also seen from the Czech Republic
2008 OS7 orbits the Sun every 962 days. After passing by Earth, it continues on a path through the Solar System.
Next 2 Feb., potentially hazardous asteroid #2008OS7 will have a close and safe encounter with us. coming as close as 2.8 million of km from the Earth, 7.4 x the lunar distance. The Virtual Telescope Project will show it to you live! pic.twitter.com/7cmVa02iDX
— Virtual Telescope (@VirtualTelescop) February 1, 2024
Scientists have already identified over three tens of thousands of similar cosmic objects near the Earth. Last August, just over 2,300 of them were marked as “potentially dangerous”, the portal reminds Space.com.
Any space rock larger than 150 meters with a minimum distance from Earth of 7.5 million km or less is classified as a potentially hazardous object by NASA.
Closer than the moon
Anyway, asteroids hit Earth regularly, but they are often so small that they burn up in the atmosphere. However, the larger ones could do significant damage if they hit our planet.
A few days ago, for example, we had an even “closer encounter” with one object. Asteroid 2024 BJ, according to the website IFLScience thus only approx. 25 meters long, approached on January 27 at 18:28 CET at a distance of only 354 thousand km, as astronomer Pravec added for Novinky.
The average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,400 km.
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#halfkilometer #asteroid #fly #Earth #News
