Small asteroid 2021 GW4’s orbit is depicted in white; The earth’s orbit is depicted in blue. Image via NASA / JPL.
A recently spotted space rock will pass by our planet on Monday, April 12, 2021. It will come much closer, much closer than geostationary satellites orbiting about 35,786 km above the earth. The small asteroid has been named 2021 GW4. It is estimated that it is about 5 meters in diameter. It is a small space rock and there is no risk of impact, astronomers say. NASA / JPL calculations indicate that the asteroid 2021 GW4 will pass only 19,816 km from the Earth’s surface, which is about 5% of the Earth’s lunar distance.
The space rock moves at 30,104 km / h or 8,706 miles per hour, relative to the earth. The closest approximation of asteroid 2021 GW4 takes place at about 13:00 UTC (during the day for the east coast of North America; translate UTC to your time) on Monday 12 April. Amateur strophographers can try to capture the space rock on Sunday. night (April 11), while the asteroid goes very close where we see the galaxy Messier 95, in the direction of the constellation Leo the Lion, seen from our perspective.
The space rock is not visible to the eye, but must be within reach of telescopes with cameras.
Location of asteroid 2021 GW4 – relative to the constellation Leo the Lion – on the night of Sunday, April 11, 2021, as shown in the American illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.
Around the middle of the evening on Sunday 11 April (i.e. by the time between your local sunset and midnight), the large-sized asteroid will be located very close to Leo’s group of galaxies. However, the space rock will move so close to our planet that astrophotographers located at different latitudes will see the space rock slightly closer or further away from Messier 95, an effect known as parallax, caused by the clear perspectives and the proximity of the object. .
In fact, observers at latitudes near Earth’s equator can capture the asteroid 2021 GW4 that passes in front of M95, while observers in the US must capture the space rock that passes just below that galaxy.
Do you have a computerized or ‘GoTo’ telescope? Point your instrument at the galaxy Messier 95 on the night of Sunday 11 April 2021. Around 22:00 to 22:45 eastern time, the asteroid 2021 GW4 will be very close to where we see these galaxies, and the space rock should appear as a small stripe in images of a few seconds or minutes of exposure. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.
Asteroid 2021 GW4 was discovered on April 8, 2021 using the 1.5-inch telescope of the Catalina Sky Survey at Mt. Lemmon, Arizona.
In short: A small asteroid named 2021 GW4 will move very close to Earth on Monday, April 12, 2021. It will pass only 19,816 km from the earth’s surface, which is about 5% of the earth’s lunar distance. Amateur astronomers using telescopes can see it on the night of Sunday, April 11, shortly before the closest approach to the Messier 95 galaxy.
