NASA Reports on Asteroid 2023 RL’s High-Speed Approach to Earth – Here are the Details

Asteroids pose a constant threat to Earth, but NASA is actively monitoring them to protect our planet. Using telescopes, NASA tracks newly discovered Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and reports their positions to the Minor Planet Center. The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) then uses this data to calculate the asteroid’s most likely orbit around the Sun. To assess the risk of impact and refine the asteroid’s orbit, NASA utilizes the Sentry program, which employs a unique algorithm. Sentry randomly selects points within the region of uncertainty, even considering highly unlikely impact scenarios. This same process was used for the latest passing asteroid.

Asteroid 2023 RL:

This space rock has been named Asteroid 2023 RL. This asteroid is heading towards Earth and will make its closest approach to the planet today. Asteroid 2023 RL is only 24 feet wide, making it the size of a bus.

Other details

Asteroid 2023 RL is already hurtling toward Earth at a speed of 19,376 kilometers per hour and will pass the planet at a distance of only 755,000 kilometers, according to NASA. It belongs to the Aten group of asteroids. The Aten family of asteroids is named after the year 2062 Aten. It was the first of its kind and was discovered by American astronomer Eleanor Helin on January 7, 1976 at the Palomar Observatory.

As NASA explains, this is a medium-sized asteroid whose orbit could bring it close to Earth. It is classified as a “Near Earth Asteroid” because of its close orbit to Earth.

Aten orbits the Sun every 347 days (0.95 years), approaching 0.79 AU and reaching a distance of up to 1.14 AU from the Sun.

Is Asteroid 2023 RL dangerous?

According to NASA, asteroids are classified as “potentially hazardous” if they are within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth and are larger than 150 meters. So asteroid 2023 is not a threat to our planet at all.