As per NASA, the largest asteroid will be passing by Earth on March 21 this year. The asteroid will approach within some 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) of our planet.
Key Points
- NASA will allow astronomers to get a rare close look at an asteroid.
- As per NASA, The asteroid, 2001 FO32, was discovered 20 years ago and is estimated to be about 3,000 feet in diameter.
- Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, we know the orbital path of 2001 FO32 around the Sun very accurately.
- There is no possibility the asteroid will get any closer to Earth than 1.25 million miles.
- That is roughly 5.25 times the distance of the Earth from the Moon but still close enough for 2001 FO32 to be classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”
- NASA said 2001 FO32 will pass by at around 77,000 miles per hour faster than the speed at which most asteroids encounter Earth.
- At present, very little is known about this object.
- As per NASA, when sunlight hits an asteroid’s surface, minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others. 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.
- Also, the asteroid will be the brightest while it moves through the southern skies.
NASA said over 95% of near-Earth asteroids the size of 2001 FO32 or larger have been cataloged and none of them has any chance of impacting our planet over the next century.
