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The largest asteroid expected to pass through Earth this year will reach its closest point on March 21.
The space rock, which formed at the dawn of the solar system and was discovered in March 2001, is called 2001 FO32.
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According to a NASA publication Thursday, the asteroid will approach no more than 1.25 million miles – five and a quarter times the distance between Earth and the Moon – and will fly at 77,000 miles per hour.
Researchers believe the asteroid’s diameter is likely less than 1 kilometer.
There is no current threat of collision with Earth, and neither will there be for centuries to come.
That said, the 2001 FO32 path will offer astronomers a rare opportunity to observe the planetoid up close as 1.25 million miles is still relatively close in astronomical terms.
NASA explained that this technicality is the reason why the asteroid was designated “potentially dangerous” and the agency assured that the Center for Studies of Near Earth Objects (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory works to “help accurately characterize the orbit of each NEO to improve long-term hazard assessments.”
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“We know very precisely the orbital trajectory of the 2001 FO32 around the Sun, because it was discovered 20 years ago and has been followed since,” said CNEOS director Paul Chodas. “There is no chance that the asteroid will approach Earth within 1.25 million kilometers.”
In addition, the asteroid’s rapid approach is due to its strongly tilted and elongated orbit around the sun.
After its flyby on March 21, 2001, FO32 will not approach Earth again until 2052. The asteroid will be visible with a medium-sized telescope with apertures of at least 8 inches in the nights leading up to the closest approach .
The last particularly large asteroid near Earth was 1998 OR2 in April of last year.
More than 95% of near-Earth asteroids the size of 2001 FO32 have been discovered and tracked and none of the large asteroids stand a chance of impacting Earth in the next century, according to the agency.
In 2020, a record number of asteroids flew over Earth, according to the scientific journal Nature.
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He reported Thursday that scientists had cataloged 2,958 previously unknown near-Earth asteroids despite the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 107 of which had passed the Earth at a distance less than that of the Moon.
The currently known number of asteroids is 1,068,721.
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