The largest asteroid to pass by Earth this year was at its closest yesterday, giving astronomers a rare chance for a good look at a space rock that formed at the dawn of our solar system.
While in astronomical terms this marks a close encounter with the asteroid — called 2001 FO32 — NASA said that there is no threat of a collision with our planet “now or for centuries to come.”
The nearest it would get would be 2 million kilometers away, the US space agency said.
Photo: AFP / NASA / UH / IFA / Handout
That is about 5.25 times the distance from the Earth to the moon, but still close enough for 2001 FO32 to be classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”
“We know the orbital path of 2001 FO32 around the sun very accurately,” said Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.
NASA said that 2001 FO32 was to pass by at about 124,000kph faster than the speed at which most asteroids encounter Earth.
The asteroid is estimated to be about 900m in diameter and was discovered 20 years ago.
Astronomers are hoping to get a better understanding of the asteroid’s size and a rough idea of its composition by studying light reflecting off its surface.
“When sunlight hits an asteroid’s surface, minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others,” NASA said. “By studying the spectrum of light reflecting off the surface, astronomers can measure the chemical ‘fingerprints’ of the minerals on the surface of the asteroid.”
The asteroid was to be at its closest to Earth at about 4pm GMT yesterday, the Paris Observatory said.
Amateur astronomers in some parts of the globe should be able to conduct their own observations.
The asteroid would be brightest while it moves through southern skies, Chodas said.
“Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere and at low northern latitudes should be able to see this asteroid using moderate-size telescopes with apertures of at least eight inches in the nights leading up to closest approach, but they will probably need star charts to find it,” he said.
NASA said more than 95 percent of near-Earth asteroids the size of 2001 FO32 or larger have been cataloged and none of them has any chance of hitting our planet over the next century.
NASA said the next time 2001 FO32 would be close to Earth would be in 2052.
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