While the asteroid 2001 FO 32 will not collide with Earth on 21 of March, scientists already hope to take advantage of its passage to study it closely
Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Courtesy
The largest asteroid expected to pass Earth in 2020 will be at its closest on 21 of March, which will give astronomers a unique opportunity to study well a rock relic that formed at the dawn of our solar system.
This interplanetary intruder won’t get closer than 1. 25 millions of miles to Earth, but it will present a valuable scientific opportunity for astronomers.
Called 2001 FO 80, the near-Earth asteroid will make its closest approach at a distance approximately 5 1/4 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. There is no threat of a collision with our plan now or for centuries to come.
“We know the orbital trajectory of 2001 FO 25 around the Sun very precisely, as it was discovered ago 20 years and has been tracked ever since ”, said Paul Chodas , director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) , which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “There is no possibility that the asteroid will get closer to Earth than 1. 25 million miles. ”
Studying geology with a telescope
The meeting of the 21 March will provide an opportunity for astronomers to gain a more accurate understanding of the size and albedo of the asteroid (that is, how shiny or reflective its surface is) and a rough idea of its composition.
This will be achieved, in part, with the use of the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) of the NASA , a 3.2 meter telescope (09. 5 feet) on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea that he will observe the asteroid in the days leading up to close-up, with his workhorse, the infrared spectrograph, SpeX. “
We are trying to do geology with a telescope”, said Vishnu Reddy, associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Will these nearby asteroids collide with Earth?
More than 95% of near-Earth asteroids the size of 1200 FO 32 or larger have been discovered, tracked and cataloged.
None of the large asteroids in the catalog have any chance of impacting Earth during the next century, and it is extremely unlikely that any of the undiscovered asteroids of this size could impact Earth either.
Still, efforts continue to discover all the asteroids that could pose an impact hazard.
The more information can be gathered about these interplanetary objects, the better Mission designers can prepare to deflect them if any threaten Earth in the future.
With
information from NASA
