Scientists advise people not to panic, as the giant rock, which poses no threat to the planet, follows its closest approach on Sunday.
The largest asteroid that swept past Earth this year will follow its closest approach on Sunday.
But scientists have told people not to panic as it poses no threat to the planet.
The US space agency NASA said the giant space rock that scientists call 2001 FO32 has a diameter of several hundred meters and will approach the earth at about two million kilometers.
The distance is more than five times as far as the earth to the moon.
“It is stable, it is not at a risky rate,” Detlef Koschny, an asteroid expert from the European Space Agency, told dpa news agency, adding that the celestial object would be available to amateur astronauts with the right equipment. .
“We know the 2001 FO32 orbit around the sun very accurately, as it was discovered 20 years ago and has been followed ever since,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. the south of California.
This particular asteroid, which orbits the sun once every 810 days, will fly past the earth at a speed of about 124,000 km / h.
After its harmless visit on Sunday, FO32 will continue its lonely journey and only come so close to Earth again in 2052, NASA said.
Scientists plan to use the flying machine to study the asteroid more closely.
“We do not know much about it,” Koschny said, adding that the fact that the 2001 FO32 is being thoroughly researched will help astronomers working on asteroid deflection projects.