NASA Uncovers Startling Information: Asteroid to Pass Closer to Earth than the Moon

The asteroid belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter, is where the majority of asteroids are located. Nonetheless, some of these celestial bodies have paths that bring them nearer to Earth. In recent times, there have been a few instances of asteroids passing by our planet, but thanks to the use of technological tools for early detection and monitoring, scientists have been able to confirm that they do not pose any threat to Earth.

NASA has now revealed that a similar asteroid is set to pass the planet and will pass closer to its moon!

About Asteroid 2023 LZ

NASA has warned that an asteroid named Asteroid 2023 LZ is moving rapidly towards Earth and is expected to make its closest approach to the planet today, June 14. This space rock is already on its way towards us and travels at an amazing speed of 49054 kilometers per hour. The asteroid passes the Earth very close, only 317,000 kilometers away.

If you compare, the Moon is located about 382,500 kilometers from the Earth. This makes asteroid 2023 LZ extra special as it passes closer to Earth’s moon! It belongs to the group of Apollo asteroids, which are Earth-passing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth’s. They are named after the Apollo asteroid of 1862, which was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

Although this asteroid is not huge in size, measuring 59 feet across, a similarly sized space rock exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in 2013, damaging 8,000 buildings and injuring more than 1,000 people.

NASA’s Sentry II

NASA has a new impact monitoring system in place that uses an algorithm called Sentry-II to calculate the collision risk of near-Earth objects. Using this infrared data, NASA can track an asteroid’s orbit and even predict its orbit years into the future. To date, nearly 28,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered using various technical instruments that track objects in the sky.