The top row
An asteroid the size of a football field will pass Earth on Friday, and because of its size and how close it is coming to Earth, NASA scientists are keeping an eye on it for any potential danger.
An asteroid is floating in space.
Basic elements
An 890-foot asteroid will fly past Earth on Friday, coming within 1.7 million miles of the planet — about seven times farther than the Moon — and traveling at about 11 miles per second, according at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The asteroid, called Asteroid 2008 OS7, orbits the Sun every 962 days, so its next return will be in 2026, although its next close approach won’t be until 2037when it will reach a distance of 10 million miles from Earth.
NASA designates objects that are 4.6 million miles from Earth and are larger than 150 meters as a “potentially hazardous object,” so NASA monitors the potential danger.
It is expected to pass Earth around 9:41 AM. EST on Friday, and although it won’t be visible to the naked eye, NASA is offering a virtual one asteroid tracker to track where asteroids are in the solar system in real time and the Virtual Telescope Project will live broadcast the fact.
Big number
1,303,867. That’s how many NASA asteroids there are calculates are in the solar system.
Key background
Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun like planets, although much smaller, according at NASA. They are made up of the remnants left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Asteroid 2008 OS7 is one of 18,232 Apollo class asteroids, which are asteroids that can Stavros in Earth’s orbit. NASA has taken the threat of an asteroid coming into contact with Earth more seriously in recent years. In 2022 he held his first Double Asteroid Deflection Test, which changed the orbit of an asteroid. NASA launched a spacecraft into space and hit the asteroid, reducing its orbit by 32 minutes. NASA also sent the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to a Mission to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu to study it. The spacecraft collected samples of the asteroid and dropped them on Earth in September 2023, although the findings have not yet been made public. Scientists believe Bennu has a chance to collide with Earth in 2182, which is why the asteroid is being researched. The scientists with the OSIRIS-REx The mission believes Bennu has a one in 2,700 chance of hitting a Texas-sized portion of Earth in 2182, according to a 2023 paper published in Ikaros.
Tangent line
Asteroid 2008 OS7 is not the only asteroid passing by Earth tomorrow, as two more will approach. Asteroid 2024 BJ3, discovered this year, is a 70-foot-long, airplane-sized asteroid passing by. It will come within 533,000 miles of Earth—much closer than OS7 in 2008. Asteroid 2024 BP1 is also the size of an airplane, though slightly larger at 170 feet. In 2024 BP1 will pass by at its furthest from Earth, at 2.1 million miles.
Further reading
NASA scientists have calculated the exact date that an asteroid could hit Earth with the force of at least 24 nuclear bombs. Fortunately, it is very far. (Business Insider)
Next five asteroid approaches (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
‘Wolf Moon’ Rises This Week: See When You’ll See the Year’s First Full Moon (Forbes)
