An asteroid similar to the Golden Gate Bridge will sweep past Earth later this month – the largest and fastest asteroid passing near our planet this year.
© Space Reference
screen-shot-2021-03-01-at-10-15-06-am.png
But do not worry, it will not get too close.
The asteroid, officially known by NASA as 231937 (2001 FO32), is about 0.5 to 1 mile in diameter, making it larger than about 97% of the asteroids, but small compared to large asteroids, according to Space Reference. It has a rotation period of 810 days.
The asteroid will arrive at 1.25 million miles from Earth on March 21 at 11:02 ET, just one day after the spring equinox. It’s close enough for NASA to classify it as’potentially dangerous“in its database of near-Earth asteroids.
“This is the closest forecast approach in 2021 for any moderately large asteroid, where ‘moderately large’ is at least a few hundred meters in size,” Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, told CBS News on Wednesday said. .
Click to expand
FOLLOWING
However, it carries no risk of impact, and scientists know the path very accurately.
© Provided by CBS News
An artistic version creates an estimated landscape of 2001 FO32 with Mount Everest in the background. The shape, color and texture of the asteroid are represented. / Credit: Space Reference
It will zoom in at nearly 77,000 miles per hour or 21 miles per second, increasing the interest of scientists as one of the fastest space rocks known to fly past Earth, according to EarthSky. Asteroids are described as ‘potentially dangerous’ if they come within about 4.65 million miles from Earth and are larger than 500 feet in diameter.
Load error
At its brightest, the space rock will still be “too faint” to be seen with the naked eye, Chodas said.
“A fascinating aspect of asteroids is that observers using telescopes in the backyard can see them as apparently slow-moving ‘stars,'” EarthSky said. “It usually takes at least 5 to 10 minutes for backyard telescope users to detect a space rock motion in front of its star field. But the asteroid 2001 FO32 will wash past the Earth at such a rapid pace that observers where it is 8 closest, 8- Inch or larger telescopes can detect its motion – it drifts away from the stars – in real time. ‘
Observers at lower northern latitudes and in the southern hemisphere will have the best chance of seeing it at its brightest, Chodas said. Star charts will help track it down.
Telescopes in New Mexico that are part of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program detected the asteroid on March 23, 2001. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory program, funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA, has been monitoring it ever since.
The current biggest threat is an asteroid called (410777) 2009 FD, which has less than a 0.2% chance of hitting the earth in 2185, according to NASCO’s PDCO.
Read more