NASA Announces Details of Asteroid’s Closest Approach to Earth – Closer than the Moon!
NASA has established various space telescopes and ground-based observatories to explore, monitor, and analyze asteroids in space. Notable examples include the renowned Hubble Space Telescope and the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope. Additionally, spacecraft like Dawn, OSIRIS-REx, and Hayabusa2 have contributed to the examination of these ancient celestial bodies. Presently, there are 1,298,210 identified asteroids in space, and although not all pose a threat, some can be diverted from their trajectory by the gravitational pull of planets like Jupiter, potentially endangering Earth. Consequently, it is crucial to track these asteroids to eliminate uncertainties regarding their approach.
NASA has now revealed that an asteroid is ready to pass the planet, and it will pass closer to the moon!
About asteroid 2023 TM3
NASA has warned that an asteroid named Asteroid 2023 TM3 is moving rapidly towards Earth and is expected to make its closest approach to the planet today, October 10. This space rock is already on its way, traveling at a terrifying speed of 58306 kilometers per hour. , which just shy of the speed of the spaceship!
According to NASA, Asteroid 2023 TM3 will pass very close to Earth at a distance of only 103,000, which is one-third the distance to the Moon from Earth! For the uninitiated, the distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 kilometers. It is one of the closest asteroid approaches of the year so far.
Other details
It belongs to the group of Aten asteroids, which are Earth-crossing Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) with semi-major axes smaller than Earth’s. They are named after the asteroid 2062 Ate, and the first of their kind was discovered by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at the Palomar Observatory on January 7, 1976.
Despite the very close approach, this asteroid has not been considered a threat due to its small size. NASA estimates it to be almost as big as a house at 47 feet wide.
This is not the first time that Asteroid 2023 TM3 has come close enough to be considered a Near Earth Object (NEO). According to NASA, it made its first close approach to Earth on October 10, 1988, when it passed within a million kilometers of the planet. After today, the asteroid will come close to the planet again on August 16, 2032, when it will pass at a distance of 5.7 million kilometers.
