Asteroid to make one of the “closest approaches to Earth ever recorded”

An asteroid the size of a box truck is predicted to make one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded on Friday. NASA, While the asteroid is in no danger of hitting Earth and will harmlessly zoom past the southern tip of the US, this is an “extraordinarily close approach”.

Asteroid 2023 BU was discovered on 21 January by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov from his observatory in Nauchny, Crimea. A few days later, NASA’s Scout impact risk assessment system, which is maintained by the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), rejected the asteroid. as an “influencer”.

David Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed Scout, said, “Scout ruled out 2023 BU as an impactor, but despite very few observations, it was able to predict that the asteroid will interact exceptionally well with Earth.” Will get near.”

“In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded,” Farnocchia said.

While this approach will have no effect on Earth, the same cannot be said of 2023 BU. This “extraordinarily close approach” is predicted to significantly alter its path around the Sun.

Before meeting Earth, the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun was roughly circular, taking 359 days to complete its orbit around the Sun. NASA reported that after this encounter, the asteroid’s orbit would become more elongated “moving it to about halfway between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its farthest point from the Sun”.

After its encounter, the asteroid’s orbit will become more elongated, taking it to its farthest point from the Sun, about halfway between the orbits of Earth and Mars.