The largest asteroid flyby of 2021, the size of the Golden Gate Bridge, to make “a very close encounter” with Earth on March 21

An asteroid the size of the Golden Gate Bridge will cross our planet this weekend – the largest and fastest asteroid to cross Earth this year.

But don’t worry, it won’t get too close.

The asteroid, officially known to NASA as 231937 (2001 FO32), is smaller than the last notable to get closer to Earth, but it will be three times closer, NASA said in a statement.

2001 FO32 is approximately 1,300 to 2,230 feet wide, according to observations by the NEOWISE mission team, placing it at the lower end of the scale. It has an orbit of 810 days.

He will be here to mark the first full day of spring.

2001 FO32 is rapidly approaching our planet, coming to 1.25 million miles from Earth at 11:02 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 21, just one day after the spring equinox. It’s close enough for NASA to classify it as “potentially dangerous“In its database of asteroids near Earth, a name given when an asteroid is about 4.65 million miles from Earth and has a diameter of more than 500 feet.

The asteroid will exceed nearly 77,000 miles per hour or 21 miles per second – the top interests of scientists as one of the fastest space rocks known to fly past Earth. It is “unusually fast” due to its very inclined and elongated orbit around the sun, which brings it closer to the sun than Mercury and twice as far from the sun as Mars.

“This is the closest approach expected in 2021 for any moderately large asteroid, where ‘moderately large’ means at least a few hundred meters in size,” Paul Chodas, director of the nearby Center for Object Studies, told CBS News. Earth.

However, it does not pose any risk of impact, and scientists know their path very precisely, after studying it for about two decades.

“As the 2001 FO32 travels its inner solar system, the asteroid increases in speed like a skateboarder that rolls on a half-tube and then slows down after being thrown back into deep space and returns to the Sun,” NASA said. .

The upcoming meeting offers astronomers a unique opportunity to gain a better understanding of the asteroid, including its size, reflectivity, and composition. Some of the studies will make use of NASA’s infrared telescopic system (IRTF) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

“We’re trying to do geology with a telescope,” said Vishnu Reddy, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson. “We will use IRTF to obtain the infrared spectrum to see its chemical structure. Once we know this, we can make comparisons with meteorites on Earth to find out what minerals the 2001 FO32 contains.”

In addition, researchers can use radar observations from NASA’s deep space network, which has ground stations in California, Spain and Australia, to study the asteroid’s orbit, size, rotation rate, surface characteristics and potential satellites.

“Observations dating back 20 years have shown that about 15% of asteroids near Earth, comparable in size to FO32 in 2001, have a small moon,” said Lance Benner, a senior JPL scientist. “Little is known about this object today, so a very close encounter provides a remarkable opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid.”

Most brilliantly, the space rock will still be “far too weak” to be seen with the naked eye, Chodas said. But space enthusiasts can observe it with a telescope.

“A fascinating aspect of asteroids is that observers using telescopes in the backyard can see them as ‘apparently slow-moving stars,'” EarthSky said. “It usually takes at least 5 to 10 minutes for telescope users in the backyard to detect the movement of a space rock in front of its stellar field. But the 2001 asteroid FO32 will pass by Earth at such a fast rate that when is the closest, observers using 8-inch or larger telescopes could be able to detect its motion – drifting in front of the stars – in real time. “

Observers in the lower northern latitudes and the southern hemisphere will have the best chance of seeing it at the brightest level, Chodas said. Star charts will help you locate it.

New Mexico telescopes that are part of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program detected the asteroid in March 2001. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory program, funded by the US Air Force and NASA, has been monitoring it ever since.

After its March 21 visit, FO32 will continue its “solitary journey” – not returning to Earth again until 2052. That year, it will reach 1.75 million miles from Earth, or about seven lunar distances.

The biggest threat currently known is an asteroid named (410777) 2009 FD, which has less than a 0.2% chance of hitting Earth in 2185, according to NASA’s PDCO.