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.
But do not worry, it will not get too close.
The asteroid, officially known by NASA as 231937 (2001 FO32), is about 1,300 to 2,230 feet wide, according to observations made by the NEOWISE team, which places it at the smaller end of the scale. It has a rotation period of 810 days.
The asteroid is smaller than the last notable one to approach Earth, but it will be three times closer, NASA said in a statement on Thursday.
2001 FO32 will come within 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, a name given when they come within about 4.65 million miles of Earth and are larger than 500 feet in diameter.
ASA / JPL-Caltech
It will zoom past nearly 77,000 miles per hour or 21 miles per second, which will capture the interest of scientists as one of the fastest space rocks known to fly past Earth. The asteroid is ‘extremely fast’ due to its strongly oblique and elongated orbit around the sun, which brings it closer to the sun than Mercury and twice as far from the sun as Mars.
“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 .
However, it carries no risk of impact, and scientists know its path very accurately after studying it for about two decades.
“As FO32 travels to its inner solar system in 2001, the asteroid picks up speed like a skateboarder rolling off a half-pipe, and then slows it down after being thrown back into deep space and swinging back to the sun,” NASA said .
Space reference
The upcoming encounter gives astronomers the unique opportunity to gain a better understanding of the asteroid, including its size, reflection, and composition. Some of the studies use NASA’s infrared telescope facility (IRTF) at the Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
“We’re trying to do geology with a telescope,” said Vishnu Reddy, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson. “We are going to use the IRTF to show the infrared spectrum its chemical composition. Once we know that, we can make comparisons with meteorites on Earth to find out which minerals 2001 FO32 contains.”
In addition, researchers can use radar observations by NASA’s Deep Space Network, which has ground stations in California, Spain and Australia, to study the asteroid’s orbit, dimensions, rotational speed, surface features and potential satellites.
“Observations dating back 20 years have revealed that about 15% of Earth’s asteroids comparable to the size of 2001 FO32 have a small moon,” said Lance Benner, chief scientist at JPL. “Little is known about this object at present, so the very close encounter provides an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid.”
UH / IfA
At its brightest, the space rock will still be “too faint” to be seen with the naked eye, Chodas said. But space enthusiasts can spot it with a telescope.
“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 in front of 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, part of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program, detected the asteroid in March 2001. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory program, funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA, has been monitoring it ever since.
After his visit on March 21, FO32 will continue its ‘lonely journey’ – only to return to earth in 2052. In that year it will come within 1.75 million miles of the earth, or about seven lunar distances.
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.