Truck-sized asteroid coming closest to Earth today

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Wednesday that it would be a near miss and there is no chance of the asteroid hitting the Earth.

According to the space agency, this newly discovered asteroid will zoom 2,200 miles above the southern tip of South America, which is about 10 times higher than the multitude of communications satellites.

As the AP reports, the asteroid’s closest approach will occur at 7:27 p.m. EST (9:27 p.m. local).

Scientists said that even if the space rock got too close, most of it would burn up in the atmosphere, with some of the larger pieces possibly falling as meteorites.

NASA’s Impact Hazard Assessment System, called Scout, quickly ruled out a strike, said its developer David Farnocchia, an engineer at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told the AP.

In an official statement, Farnocchia said, “But despite very few observations, it was nevertheless able to predict that the asteroid will make an exceptionally close approach to Earth. In fact, it will be among the closest approaches by known near-Earths.” There is one. object ever recorded.”

The asteroid, known as 2023 BU, was discovered on Saturday and is believed to be between 11 feet (3.5 m) and 28 feet (8.5 m) across.

It was first observed in Crimea by the same amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov who discovered the interstellar comet in 2019.

Within days, dozens of observations were made by astronomers around the world, the AP reports, allowing them to refine the asteroid’s orbit.

The asteroid’s path will be drastically altered by Earth’s gravity once it zips by. According to NASA, instead of orbiting the Sun every 359 days, it will go into an elliptical orbit lasting 425 days.

(with AP inputs)