Warning! Asteroid of Stadium-Size to Pass Close to Earth Today – Potential Risk!
An increasing number of asteroids have been passing by Earth, although they are at a close but safe distance. It is crucial for space agencies like NASA and ESA to closely observe these celestial objects due to the potential risk of collision. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office utilizes telescopes to monitor the skies and keep track of upcoming flybys of near-Earth objects (NEOs). Through the aid of advanced satellites and ground-based telescopes like the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a total of 1,298,692 asteroids have been identified so far. Among them, over 27,000 are near-Earth asteroids with orbits that bring them within 7.5 million kilometers of our planet.
One of these rocks is Asteroid 2018 UY, which is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today.
Asteroid 2018 UY data
The asteroid, named Asteroid 2018 UY by NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), will make its closest approach to Earth today, July 12, at a distance of 2.8 million kilometers. It is hurtling toward Earth at a dizzying speed of 58,979 kilometers per hour.
The worrying thing about this asteroid is that it is the size of a mammoth. At nearly 760 feet wide, it’s almost the size of a stadium! It has been added to NASA’s close approach list and has also been declared a potentially hazardous asteroid due to its close approach distance and enormous size.
It belongs to Apollo’s group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-passing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth’s. These asteroids are named after the huge 1862 Apollo asteroid discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.
Asteroids hiding behind the sun
Astronomers have spotted three near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) hiding in the sun’s glare. One of them is the largest object potentially dangerous to Earth that has been discovered in the last eight years. A team using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, discovered these asteroids.
This is a notoriously challenging region for observations, as asteroid hunters must contend with solar glare. Taking advantage of brief but favorable observing conditions during twilight, however, astronomers found this elusive triangle.
