Nearly two-kilometer wide potentially hazardous asteroid to come close to Earth on May 27

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 24, 2022: While the world witnessed the total lunar eclipse at the beginning of May, the end of the month will see one of the biggest asteroids passing by the planet. The potentially hazardous asteroid is nearly two kilometers wide as it approaches the planet from deep space.

 

 

Asteroid 1989 JA will rendezvous with Earth on May 27 as it comes as close as just 40,24,182 kilometers to the planet. At the time of its closest approach, the object will be traveling at a staggering speed of 47,232 kilometers per hour. The asteroid has been declared potentially hazardous to the planet due to its close proximity during the flyby.

The asteroid is similar to the Chelyabinsk asteroid that entered Earth’s atmosphere in 2013 and caused damage in six Russian cities, however, asteroid 1989 JA will safely pass by. The May 27 approach will be the closest for the space rock and will remain so for another 200 years.

Asteroids are rocky fragments left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. An asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object when its distance from our planet is less than 1.3 times the distance from Earth to the Sun (the Earth-Sun distance is about 93 million miles).

The Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will do a livestream of the asteroid flyby as it comes close to Earth.

Characterised as an apollo asteroid for its year-long orbit around the Sun after crossing Earth, its next rendezvous with Earth after the May 29th flyby will be in September 2029. It will make two additional flybys in 2055 and 2062. It takes 2.35 years to complete one orbit around the Sun.

The last such big asteroid to come close to Earth was 138971 (2001 CB21), which was 1.3 kilometers wide and came as close to Earth as 49,11,298 kilometers on March 4. Following its close flyby, the object is on its way to the Sun, completing its orbit in just under 400 days.

Courtesy: India Today