Three asteroids are approaching our planet today (March 23), but do not worry; the small rocks pose no threat if they drift through the earth and run closer than the average distance between our planet and the moon.
The largest of the three space rocks, an asteroid from home called 2021 FH, passed about 12:52 hours EDT (1652 GMT) at Earth today at a distance of about 234,870 kilometers, or 0.61 times the average Earth . -moon distance. NASA estimates that the asteroid’s diameter is between 39 meters and 89 feet (12 meters to 27 meters), or about the length of a semi-truck.
Details about its orbit were published online by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Small-Body Database Browser, a database of all known small worlds in our solar system. The Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union has also sent a circular to the community with observations from various astronomers around the world, including updated orbital elements.
Video: 3 asteroids zoom in less than 24 hours closer to moon
Small asteroids and comets regularly pass by Earth, and in fact they are not the only small world that has passed through our planet this week. The newly discovered 2021 FO1, now cataloged by JPL, was safely zoomed through the earth on Monday 22 March at 23:05 EDT (Tuesday 23 March at 0305 GMT).
The newfound world was quite small – about 3.4 to 7.6 meters wide. With its closest approximation, FO1 2021 was 321,640 kilometers, or 0.84 times the average lunar distance. (For comparison, the distance of the moon from our planet is about 239,000 miles, or 384,000 km.)
Related: The largest asteroid to visit Earth in 2021 is zoomed in extremely fast
And tonight at 18:35 EDT (2235 GMT) another asteroid called 2021 FP2 is expected to make a close flight from Earth and descend within 323 120 km of our planet – just a little further than 2021 FO1. NASA’s Minor Planet Center contains a dozen more asteroids near Earth that will fly through our planet this week, but none will be closer than the moon.
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office and a series of partners around the world are tracking small asteroids through telescopic observations, and over several decades of observations by scientists, no looming problems have been found. Earlier this month, the infamous Apophis asteroid caused our planet to fly; scientists in 2029 ruled out any threat to our world by Apophis.
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