Astronomers said that on the 13th of this month, a potentially dangerous asteroid “2020 WU5” will fly over 8 million kilometers from the earth and cross the earth’s orbit. The asteroid trajectory can be viewed on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.
According to comprehensive foreign media reports, asteroid 2020 WU5 was discovered on November 29, 2020 on a photo taken by the NEOWISE Space Telescope (Wide-area Infrared Survey Telescope), and was included in the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Asteroid Electronic Bulletin on December 4 , And it belongs to the Apollo-type asteroid, a near-Earth object whose orbit passes through the orbit of the earth.
Scientists estimate that the diameter of the asteroid 2020 WU5 is between 500 meters and 1.1 kilometers, and its orbit passes through the constellations of Caudal, Monoceros, Canis, Gemini, and Auriga. On the night of January 13th and 14th, it will reach the closest distance to the earth, crossing the earth’s orbit at 0.05410 astronomical units (AU).
One astronomical unit is equal to 149.5 billion 97.87 million meters, so the closest distance between the asteroid and the Earth is estimated to be 80,93,324,480.87 meters, which is about 8,094,244 kilometers. The calculated data shows that the brightness of this asteroid is 12.9 and its angular velocity is 33.4 arc seconds per minute. At that time, it will move from Gemini to Auriga.
The mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere are good areas for observing “2020 WU5”. The asteroid can be seen through telescopes with a diameter of 200 mm or more. Although the shortest distance of “2020 WU5” passing the earth is still quite far, it is estimated to be between 7.5 million and 7.5 million. 8.1 million kilometers away, but it is still classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid.
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(Zhongshi News Network)
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