An asteroid passed near Earth this morning. Learn to see – science

The chances of colliding with Earth and causing trouble are far away, but still, the asteroid 2023 BU will not go unnoticed, For Razia, which she is preparing to perform on the blue planet, which is considered the closest ever to a being of its kind.

with dimensions ranging from 3.8 to 8.5 meters, The space rock will pass about 3,600 kilometers above the surface of the planetroughly equivalent to the distance between Lisbon and Athens, or 10 times closer than the constellations of communications satellites visible in the sky.

NASA’s Scout Impact Risk Assessment System quickly ruled out an impact, but despite the lack of observations, was able to predict that the asteroid would pass unusually close to Earth. “In fact, This is one of the closest recorded ways of an object approaching Earth.Davide Farnocchia, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer responsible for Scouts development, says, quoting the space agency in a statement.

There is no danger of hitting the ground, however Even if this possibility existed, most space rocks would burn up upon entering the atmosphere.NASA confirms, with the possibility of some large pieces falling as small meteorites.

The asteroid’s trajectory will change radically due to the gravity of the blue planet, and instead of completing one cycle around the sun every 359 days, it will move in an elliptical orbit that will last 425 days. Just It will pass near Earth again on December 6, 2036.

It will be possible to follow the current approach online, namely through the virtual telescope project, which It transmits the passage of the asteroid from its location YouTube channel. The broadcast is scheduled to begin at 19:15 in mainland Portugal today, Thursday, January 2nd.

No space rocks are currently on a direct collision course with Earth, however There are more than 27,000 asteroids “on the radar” of the blue planetin different shapes and sizes.

to remember that NASA and the European Space Agency are part of the AIDA initiative – Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessmenteach with planetary defense missions, respectively DART, who deliberately caused a spacecraft to collide with an asteroid for the first time, and hera, Which will analyze the consequences of this effect on Dimorphos.

Click on the images for more details on the DART mission leaving space