Thursday, October 31

An asteroid 4 times bigger than the Empire State Building will fly close to Earth soon

Maria Ortiz

A massive asteroid over a mile wide is expected to make a closer-than-normal trip past Earth near the end of May, and when it does, it will be so close it could be seen in the sky, according to Accuweather.

Asteroids fly past Earth regularly, but the asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) is larger than many of them and measures 1.1 miles (7335 feet) wide. By comparison, it is four times the size of the Empire State Building and more than twice the size of the Burj Khalifa, located in Saudi Arabia, and the tallest building on the planet.

Asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) is currently in the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)’s next five asteroid flybys webpage, along with other space rocks.

On 28 May, the gigantic asteroid will meet closest to our planet since its discovery, but there is certainty that it will pass safely, with no threat of impact.

The asteroid 7335 was discovered on May 1, 1989 and is one of the 2,265 space rocks that NASA has labeled as “potentially dangerous asteroid”.

To be considered potentially dangerous, or An asteroid must be at least 460 feet wide and within 4.6 million miles of Earth’s orbit around the sun. This may sound close on a cosmic scale, but this distance is more than 19 times greater than the Moon to Earth.

Near the end of the month, the asteroid 7335 will come within 2.5 million miles of Earth, which is a little more than 10 times further away than the Moon. Not only is this the closest it will get to the planet since its discovery, but it’s the closest it will get until at least 2194.

This flyby will be a good opportunity for scientists to make better observations of the asteroid, as well as an opportunity for amateur stargazers detect it in the sky.

Stargazers who want to take a look at the asteroid can find it in the southern sky, near the constellation of Hydra. However, a telescope will be needed to view the massive rock, as it will not be bright enough to see with the naked eye.

Scientists continuously monitor Earth-crossing asteroids whose trajectories intersect the orbit of the Earth, and near-Earth asteroids approaching Earth’s orbital distance within approximately 28 million of miles (45 millions of kilometers) and can represent an impact hazard.

You may be interested in:

– They discover a rare asteroid that follows Earth like another Moon – A near-Earth asteroid could be a fragment of the Moon
– NASA launches Lucy, the spacecraft to hunt asteroids