The Virtual Telescope project captured this view of the 2001 asteroid FO32 just after it made a safe pass past Earth. The arrow points out the asteroid.
Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project
You can understand how a planet full of stressed people wanting to survive a pandemic might panic over the news about a very large asteroid visiting our cosmic environment. But it’s all right. Asteroid 2001 FO32 passed on March 21 at a safe distance.
The Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) managed to take a picture of the space rock, just a few hours after the flight. It appears as a small dot in the photo. The founder of VTP, Gianluca Masi, described the image as ‘happy’ due to the challenging conditions to see the morning twilight.
Asteroids of all sizes fly through the earth all the time, but occasionally NASA makes a public statement to calm fears when headlines related to space and rock get out of control.
The NASA Asteroid Watch Twitter account delivered reassuring message earlier this month said that FO32 2001 “would zip past the earth safely at a distance of 1.3 million miles – five times farther than the moon – and there was no danger of hitting the earth.”
You may have headlines about a #asteroid which will fly safely through the earth on March 21st. Although this asteroid, known as 2001 FO32, is large, it will zip safely past Earth at a distance of 1.3 million miles – five times beyond the moon – and it poses no danger of hitting Earth. pic.twitter.com/oZZG5UaFsf
– NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 8, 2021
According to JPL data, the asteroid was first discovered in 2001, so we have known for a long time.
One of the reasons why the asteroid attracted extra attention is its size. It’s a large ‘un, and initial information has suggested that it could turn in with an estimated diameter of up to about a kilometer (1.7 kilometers). The latest data has scaled it down and it may be closer to 550 meters in diameter. It’s still very solid.
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NASA and other space organizations are doing amazing work to detect asteroids coming to Earth’s environment. If you want to be desperate about an asteroid, then Apophis – which will pass accurately in 2029 – is a better candidate, but still nothing to sleep over.
Instead you can spend your energy getting excited NASA’s upcoming DART mission, which will test a method to change the course of dangerous asteroids.
Follow CNET’s 2021 space calendar to stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.