An asteroid the size of a truck is expected to approach Earth at one of the closest distances ever recorded on Thursday night (26), according to NASA.
The small asteroid, called 2023 BU, will pass over the southern tip of South America at 9:27 pm on Thursday, about 3,540 kilometers above Earth’s surface. The distance is considered close because it is within the orbit of global satellites.
NASA has already assured that there is no risk of the asteroid hitting Earth.
If the rock, estimated to be between 3.5 and 8.5 meters in diameter, were to come towards Earth, it would turn into a fireball as soon as it entered the atmosphere and disintegrate. The remaining debris would fall to the ground as small meteorites, according to the space agency.
Amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov spotted the asteroid from the MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday. Borisov also previously discovered interstellar comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.
The Minor Planet Center, which tracks the positions of minor planets, comets and space rocks, has also received recent reports of observations of asteroid 2023 BU. Once enough observations were recorded, the center announced the discovery of the asteroid. Under the command of the International Astronomical Union, the organization is responsible for the identification, designation and orbital data of these celestial objects.
Observatories around the world carried out further investigations after the discovery was announced on Sunday, allowing for a precise refinement of the orbit of 2023 BU.
The impact risk assessment system at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies analyzed data from the Minor Planet Center and predicted the asteroid would miss Earth.
The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies calculates the trajectory of all known near-Earth asteroids to assess their potential impact on our planet.
“The system quickly ruled out the impact of 2023 BU, but despite the few observations it was able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth,” said Davide Farnocchia, a JPL navigation engineer who developed the system, in a statement. . “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches of an Earth object ever recorded.”
Earth’s gravity changes the trajectory of asteroids, but 2023 BU will come so close to our planet that its orbit around the sun will change after the encounter.
Prior to Thursday’s close flyby, the asteroid had a circular orbit that took about 359 days to complete around the sun. Subsequently, scientists estimate that the asteroid’s orbit will lengthen, extending that single orbit around the sun to 425 days.
Source: CNN Brasil
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