Pasadena, Gatra.com- Oops! Asteroid 2023 BU almost crashed into Earth on Thursday (26/01) at 16:17 EST (Friday, 04.17 WIB). The early Friday guest approached Earth at its closest possible distance of 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. Close enough compared to the Earth-Moon distance of 384,399 kilometers. Thus Live Science26/01.
A small but nimble asteroid that will pass close to Earth at dawn Friday, not to be seen again until 2036.
Asteroid 2023 BU is only about 12 to 26.9 feet (3.7 to 8.2 meters) in diameter — about the size of a metromini — and was discovered less than a week ago on January 21 by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov.
According to the Virtual Telescope Project, the asteroid will pass less than 6,213.7 miles (10,000 kilometers) from the center of Earth, about a quarter of the distance between the planet and man-made geostationary satellites, which orbit above the equator at the same speed and direction as Earth.
The asteroid is not classified as hazardous, both because its path would prevent it from colliding with Earth and it is small enough that it is likely to break up and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, according to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) NASA.
NASA’s JPL Scout impact hazard assessment system analyzes the asteroid data to confirm that 2023 BU will not crash into the planet.
“Scout quickly ruled out BU 2023 as an impactor, but despite very few observations, it still predicts that the asteroid will make an unusually close approach to Earth,” Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed the Scout, said in a statement. “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded.”
Even though the asteroid will pass close to the planet, it will still be a dim object in the sky, difficult to see without a high-powered telescope. However, the Virtual Telescope Project will be broadcasting a live flyby starting at 14:15 EST (1915 GMT) or 0215 GMT on January 27.
Will be available on the project website and YouTube channel. The asteroid will be closest to Earth at 4:17 p.m. EST (2117 GMT) that day. At that point, it was about 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) above the planet’s surface, according to NASA.
According to JPL, this small asteroid once orbited the sun every 359 days. But its close encounter with Earth will change its course. Deflected by Earth’s gravity, the asteroid’s orbit will elongate so that it takes 425 days to go around the sun in its next orbit.
Asteroid 2023 BU is what is known as the ‘Apollo’ asteroid, an asteroid whose path crosses Earth’s orbit but on a longer path than our own planet. The next closest approach to Earth, according to Space.com, will take place on December 6, 2036.
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