Scientists predict that a truck-sized asteroid will pass by Earth in one of the closest approaches ever recorded.
According to United States federal space agency NASA, that the recently discovered asteroid would zip by about 3,600 kilometres (2,200 miles) above the tip of South America.
The asteroid, called 2023 BU, is expected to come about 10 times closer than the communications satellites that circle Earth.
But scientists insisted that there is no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth. According to NASA, the potential collision was ruled out by the Scout impact hazard assessment system.
“Despite the very few observations, [Scout] was nonetheless able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach with Earth,” said NASA’s Davide Farnocchia, an engineer who helped create Scout.
“In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded”, Farnocchia added.
The announcement on Thursday January 26 was made several months after NASA successfully tested a technology in October designed to divert asteroids that may otherwise collide with Earth.
The asteroid that will pass Earth was not the subject of that programme, known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). During that effort, an impactor the size of a fridge was crashed into an asteroid, successfully changing its trajectory in what the agency characterised as a promising method of planetary defence.
On Saturday January 21, the current asteroid, 2023 BU, was found. A significant percentage of the asteroid would burn up upon hitting the atmosphere, according to scientists, even if the lunar rock approached more closely than anticipated.
2023 BU was discovered by Gennady Borisov, an amateur astronomer from the Crimea who also found an interstellar comet in 2019. The asteroid is estimated to be between 3.5 meters (11 feet) and 8.5 meters (28 feet).
The asteroid will come close enough to the Earth that its trajectory will be altered by the planet’s gravitational pull. NASA said that it previously would have taken the asteroid 359 days to orbit the sun. After the near-encounter with Earth, its orbit is expected to increase to 425 days.
Author- Roberta Appiah
