A massive asteroid first discovered 20 years ago will reach 1.25 million miles from Earth on Sunday, before being thrown into deep space, NASA revealed.
Nicknamed the 2001 FO32, it is twice the size of the Eiffel Tower, with a diameter of 2,230 ft, making it the largest space rock to cross Earth so far this year.
As the 2001 FO32 travels its inner solar system, the asteroid “increases in speed like a skateboarder that rolls on half a tube and then slows down after being thrown back into deep space and returns to the sun,” NASA explained.
The space agency says it “poses no danger to Earth,” because even at its closest point it will be more than five times farther from our planet than the moon.
It will have the closest approach on March 21, but is only visible to astronomers using larger telescopes in the southern hemisphere and low-latitude northern regions.
The asteroid, nicknamed the 2001 FO32, was first discovered 20 years ago and has a diameter of 2,230 ft, making it the largest space rock to cross Earth so far this year.
The space rock “poses no danger to Earth” because it will be 1.25 million miles away, which is more than five times farther from the Earth than the moon
Despite being more than a million miles away, NASA says it will give astronomers a “rare and careful look” at the rocky relic at the dawn of the solar system.
“Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere and low latitudes should be able to see this asteroid using moderate-sized telescopes with apertures of at least 8 inches on nights leading to the closest approach,” Chodas said.
However, he added that it will not be easy to find, as it is small and at a certain distance, saying that “they will probably need star charts to find it”.
According to NASA’s “Near Earth Object” guidelines, it will still be close enough for the 2001 FO32 to be classified as a “potentially dangerous asteroid”.
This is due in part to the fact that its orbit crosses the Earth’s orbital path – although it is not “in line” or close to Earth in the near or even distant future, NASA said.
The space agency said in a statement that “there is no threat of a collision with our planet now or in centuries to come.”
NASA said the 2001 FO32 will travel about 77,000 miles per hour faster than the speed at which most asteroids hit Earth.
The reason for the asteroid’s unusually fast approach is its extremely inclined and elongated (or eccentric) orbit around the sun.
This is an orbit inclined at 39 degrees to the Earth’s orbital plane. This orbit brings the asteroid closer to the sun than Mercury and twice as far from the sun as Mars.
The space rock completes an orbit of the sun every 810 days (about 2 1/4 years).
“Little is known about this object today, so a very close meeting provides a remarkable opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid,” said Lance Benner, chief scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NASA said astronomers hope to better understand the size of the asteroid and a rough idea of its composition by studying the light reflected from its surface.
The March 21 meeting will give astronomers an opportunity to more accurately understand the size and albedo of the asteroid – how bright or reflective its surface is – and a rough idea of its composition.
“When sunlight hits the surface of an asteroid, the minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others,” NASA said.
“By studying the spectrum of light reflected from the surface, astronomers can measure the chemical” fingerprints “of minerals on the asteroid’s surface.
This will be accomplished, in part, by the use of NASA’s infrared telescopic installation, a 10.5 ft telescope on the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
He will observe the asteroid in the days leading up close by using his working horse’s infrared spectrograph, SpeX.
“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.
This diagram describes the elongated and inclined orbit of the year 2001 FO32 as it moves around the Sun (white ellipse). Because of this orbit, when the asteroid approaches Earth, it will travel at an unusually fast speed of 124,000 km / h.
As the 2001 FO32 travels its inner solar system, the asteroid “increases its speed like a skateboarder that rolls on half a tube and then slows down after being thrown back into deep space and returns to the sun,” NASA explained.
When sunlight hits the surface of an asteroid, the minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths of light, while reflecting others. Scientists know which rocks reflect which wavelengths can determine the composition of the asteroid in light.
“We will use IRTF to get the infrared spectrum to see its chemical composition,” Reddy explained. “Once we know that, we can make comparisons with meteorites on Earth to find out what the 2001 FO32 minerals contain.”
For example, a low albedo or a darker asteroid may contain a lot of carbon, and that could be the core of a long-dead comet, according to NASA.
Other observers will use radar to repel signals from the rock, allowing them to determine its orbit, size, rotation and look at surface features such as boulders and craters.
“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 scientist at JPL.
“Currently, little is known about this object, so the very close meeting offers a remarkable opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid.”
This is a view from inside the dome of NASA’s infrared telescope, which will be used to measure the infrared spectrum of the 2001 asteroid FO32
Amateur astronomers in some parts of the globe should be able to make their own observations, especially those in the southern hemisphere.
“The asteroid will be the brightest as it moves through the southern sky,” said Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
“Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere and at low northern latitudes should be able to see this asteroid using medium-sized telescopes with apertures of at least eight centimeters at night leading to the closest approach,” he added.
However, due to its distance and relatively small size compared to the planets or stars, “they will probably need star charts to find it.”
After its brief visit, the 2001 FO32 will continue its journey, getting so close to Earth until 2052, when it will pass about seven lunar distances, or 1.75 million miles
NASA said that more than 95 percent of asteroids near Earth the size of 2001 FO32 or larger have been cataloged, and none of them have any chance of impacting our planet in the next century.