Scientists advise people not to panic, because the huge rock, which does not pose a threat to the planet, takes its closest approach on Sunday.
The largest asteroid to pass over Earth this year will approach its nearest Sunday.
But scientists have told people not to panic, because it does not pose a threat to the planet.
The giant space rock that researchers call the 2001 FO32 has a diameter of several hundred meters and will approach Earth at a distance of about two million kilometers (1.2 million miles), said the US space agency NASA.
This distance is more than five times the length of the Earth to the moon.
“It’s stable, it’s not on a risky course,” Detlef Koschny, an asteroid expert at the European Space Agency, told the dpa news agency, adding that the celestial object will be available for viewing by amateur astronomers with the right equipment.
“We know exactly the orbital path of the 2001 FO32 around the sun, since it was discovered 20 years ago and has been tracked ever since,” said Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Earth Object Studies. Southern California Propulsion Laboratory.
This special asteroid, which orbits the Sun once every 810 days, will fly past the Earth at a speed of approximately 124,000 km / h (77,000 mph).
After its harmless visit on Sunday, the 2001 FO32 will continue its solitary journey, without approaching Earth again until 2052, NASA said.
Scientists intend to use flyby to study the asteroid more closely.
“We don’t know much about that,” Koschny said, adding that a close look at the 2001 FO32 will help astronomers working on asteroid deflection projects.