According to NASA, the asteroid will pass almost 10 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon and will not return until 2055: it will be relatively visible on its path, mainly from the southern hemisphere. It will make its closest approach to Earth at 14:26 UTC on Friday (11:26 in Argentina).
In the last few hours, NASA has drawn attention to a huge asteroid almost 2 kilometers in diameter that will pass very close to Earth this Friday, May 27; It is the largest that will approach Earth this year.
While it’s not the first time such an event has happened, in this case the space rock caused an alert due to its size.
Although the space agency assured that it is “potentially dangerous”, it indicated that there is a low probability that the asteroid named 7335 (1989 JA) will become a threat to the planet.
What does “potentially dangerous” mean?
“Potentially dangerous” means it could do enormous damage to our planet if its orbit changes and the rock hits Earth.
The asteroid will pass at a distance of close to 4 million kilometers, which is almost 10 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
Closest point to Earth
According to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, the institute responsible for tracking space rocks, the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 14:26 UTC on Friday (11:26 in Argentina).
Asteroid size and speed
The diameter of the asteroid, in turn, will measure twice that of the famous Burj Khalifa building, the skyscraper in Dubai. Furthermore.
At that point, the rock will be 0.026 astronomical units (4 million kilometers) from Earth and will travel at an impressive speed of approximately 47,231 kilometers per hour, or 14.5 times faster than a bullet.
“Experts estimate that the impact of an object the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, approximately 17 meters in diameter, occurs once or twice a century.“, they indicated from the United States-based space agency.
Scientists also note a low probability of impact on “larger” space objects and predict that it will be much less frequent, considering a scale of centuries to millennia.
However, it warned that its so-called “near-Earth object” (NEO) catalog is not complete, meaning an unforeseen impact could happen “at any time”.
“As the current NEO catalog is incomplete, an unforeseen impact such as the Cheluabinsk event could happen at any time.“, they concluded.
This asteroid will be the largest of the year to approach Earth, and its passage will not be repeated until June 23, 2055, when it will pass even further than this flyby, approximately 70 times the distance between Earth and Earth. Moon.