The asteroid, named Asteroid 2023, is expected to fly over South America. During its flight, the asteroid is predicted to be just 2,200 miles above Earth's surface, making it the closest in recorded history, according to NASA.
San Francisco: An asteroid, the size of a truck, will have a very close encounter with Earth this week, NASA Systems has predicted. The asteroid, named Asteroid 2023, is expected to fly over South America. During its flight, the asteroid is predicted to be just 2,200 miles above Earth's surface, making it the closest in recorded history, according to NASA.
However, the space agency said there is no risk of the asteroid hitting Earth, and even if it did, the small asteroid, which is estimated to measure between 11.5 and 28 feet (3.5 to 8.5 meters) across, it would disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere. , and some of the larger debris could fall as small meteorites.
The asteroid was first seen by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov on Saturday and reported to the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
NASA's Scout Impact Risk Assessment System was then used to analyze the MPC data and predict the near miss.
"Scout quickly ruled out 2023 BU as an impactor, but despite the very few observations, it was able to predict that the asteroid would come extraordinarily close to Earth," said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed Scout. in a sentence.
"In fact, this is one of the closest approaches of a known near-Earth object ever recorded," he added.
Although this asteroid does not pose a threat to Earth, NASA has been focused on building planetary defenses against them.
Topics
