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On November 8, 2018, the Virtual Telescope Project captured this image of the 2018 VX1 geo-terrestrial asteroid.
Credit: Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project
A new asteroid found will hit Earth zip today (November 10), and you can follow the intruder's hike live.
The 2018 VX1 asteroid, which scientists believe to be between 8 and 18 meters wide (between 26 and 59 meters), will reach about 236,000 miles (380,000 kilometers) of our planet at during this pbadage. It's a little closer than the moon, which revolves around the Earth at an average distance of about 239,000 miles (384,600 km).
The Virtual Telescope Project will broadcast a show on the VX1 flyby in 2018 on Saturday, starting at 1 pm EST (1800 GMT). You can watch the show live here on Space.com or directly via the Virtual Telescope Project.
2018 VX1 was discovered last week, November 4th. The asteroid takes about 1.6 Earth years to perform a complete turn around the sun. Scientists say that there is no risk of impact on this overflight of our planet.
Two more recently discovered asteroids will also be zooming into the vicinity of Earth on Saturday, but none of them will come close to the VX1 2018 test. Versions 2018 VS1 and 2018 VR1, which have also detected for the first time last week, respectively run distances of about 1.3 million kilometers and 5 million kilometers.
Such surprise visits only reinforce how many Near Earth asteroids (NEA) are out there and how few astronomers have spotted. It is estimated that the NEA population has millions of individuals, but to date, researchers have detected and tracked only 19,000 objects of this type.
Asteroids are fascinating for many reasons. They contain a variety of valuable resources and regularly enter our planet, sometimes suffocating most life forms on Earth.
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Asteroid Basics: A Space Rock Quiz
Asteroids are fascinating for many reasons. They contain a variety of valuable resources and regularly enter our planet, sometimes suffocating most life forms on Earth. What do you know about the rocks of space?
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There is, however, good news: the risk of a catastrophic impact, potentially at the end of civilization, is weak, at least for the moment. Scientists believe they have found more than 90% of the NEA size of a mountain and none of them poses a threat to the foreseeable future.
Mike Wall's book on the Search for an Extraterrestrial Life, "Out There," will be published on November 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall . Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally posted on Space.com.
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