The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stated that an asteroid the size of a truck passed over the southern tip of South America on the afternoon of the 26th.
At that time, it will be only 3,600 kilometers away from the surface, which is “extremely close” to the earth.
According to NASA, the asteroid “2023 BU” recently discovered by amateur astronomers will fly past South America at around 4:27 pm Pacific Standard Time on the 26th. over the southern tip.
The asteroid will then be only 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) from Earth’s surface, closer than many satellites in geostationary orbit.
But NASA said in a statement yesterday that there is no risk of the asteroid hitting the Earth.
Even if there was a risk, the asteroid, which is about 3.5 to 8.5 meters (11 to 28 feet) in diameter, would probably disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere, probably producing only a handful of small meteorites.
Amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov just discovered the 2023 BU asteroid at an observatory on the Crimean Peninsula on January 21. NASA’s impact risk assessment system quickly determined that the asteroid would not hit Earth.
“Despite the very small number of observations, it was predicted that this asteroid will come very close to Earth,” said Davide Farnocchia, a NASA expert who helped develop the assessment system.
“In fact, this is one of the closest known near-Earth objects to Earth on record.”
The asteroid’s close proximity to Earth would cause its orbit around the sun to change significantly. NASA said that in the past, it took 359 days for an asteroid to circle the sun, but this time it took 425 days after it approached the earth.
