An Asteroid Will Get Nearer to Earth Than The Moon This Thursday, However Do not Panic
An asteroid will get awfully near Earth this Thursday (September 24), when it whizzes by our planet nearer than the Moon orbits.
The asteroid – often called 2020 SW – is not anticipated to collide with Earth, in accordance with the Middle for Close to Earth Object Research (CNEOS) on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. However it’s going to get shut, passing about 16,700 miles (27,000 kilometers) away from Earth, in accordance with the Digital Telescope Mission.
To place this in perspective, the moon hangs out at a mean of 238,900 miles (384,000 km) from us, or about 30 Earths away. This asteroid will go at a distance of about 2.1 Earths.
Which means asteroid 2020 SW will go even nearer than TV and climate satellites, which orbit at about 22,300 miles (35,888 km) away from Earth, in accordance with EarthSky.
Scientists have but to pin down the asteroid’s precise measurement, but it surely’s not that enormous, probably between 14 ft and 32 ft (four.four and 9.9 meters) lengthy, in accordance with CNEOS.
This doubtlessly RV-size asteroid was found solely final week, on September 18, by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, and introduced the subsequent day by the Minor Planet Middle, a NASA-funded group that screens minor planets, comets and pure satellites. (It is common to seek out unknown asteroids; in September alone, the Minor Planet Middle has introduced the invention of 244 near-Earth objects.)
The orbit of asteroid 2020 SW is seen right here in grey. (JPL/NASA)
Passing by Earth will really be a life-changing occasion for asteroid 2020 SW. It is such a small asteroid that Earth’s gravity is predicted to alter the house rock’s course when it zooms by our planet at 7:18 am EDT (11:18 UTC), in accordance with EarthSky.
After asteroid 2020 SW’s shut shave with Earth, it will not pay our planet one other go to till three June 2029, in accordance with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
That mentioned, the asteroid is definitely speeding to see us this Thursday (we hope it has a face masks), touring at a velocity of about 17,200 mph (27,720 km/h, or 7.7 km/second) relative to Earth, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.
The asteroid will seem brighter because it nears Earth, but it surely will not be seen to the bare eye.
If you would like a transparent view of the house rock, go to The Digital Telescope web site, which is exhibiting a reside feed beginning at 6 pm EDT (22:00 UTC) on Wednesday, September 23.
This text was initially printed by Stay Science. Learn the unique article right here.