(Photo : Chris Henry / Unsplash)
New Asteroid Skimming Past Earth
Asteroids that will fly safely close to the Earth were always detected under the radar. However, most of them tend to be sneaky and was not observed until they're close enough to approach. This new asteroid will join the block of sneaky ones and is set to make its presence known. Asteroid 2022 NF was discovered on Monday and will make near but completely safe proximity to Earth on Thursday.
According to CNET, the asteroid is about the size of an adult giraffe and a large shipping container, measuring around 18 to 40 feet (5.5 to 12 meters) wide. It will pass near 56,000 miles (90,000 kilometers) of Earth during its closest approach. Compared to recent asteroids that have passed Earth, that's a very close by, but it's nothing to worry about.
As predicted by NASA JPL, Asteroid NF will visit close to Earth starting July 6.
(Photo : NASA JPL, Asteroid NF 2022)
Also Read: NASA Warning! An Asteroid is Passing By Earth on Jan. 18 | How to Watch Using Telescope
How to Watch Asteroid NF
The Virtual Telescope Project will provide live coverage of the asteroid's arrival beginning at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 6 at 8:00 a.m. PT At 23 percent of the typical lunar distance, VTP founder Gianluca Masi describes it as a "very near encounter."
If you've never watched a VTP asteroid before, you might not expect the stream to show these objects up close. Instead, what you will see is a tiny asteroid traveling quickly. It will appear as a dot of light against a backdrop of stars. It's so small yet it can be tracked and live-streamed, providing you and everyone around the world with a shared experience of space.
A Promising Path for NASA's Near-Earth Object Studies
The observation of asteroid 2022 NF demonstrates current advancements in asteroid detection. The NASA JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies monitors hundreds of asteroids and keeps a look out for potential hazards in our space neighborhood. So far, the foreseeable future looks promising, especially because asteroid 2021 QM1 was just removed from a concern list after experts ruled out a probable 2052 collision.
Furthermore, NASA JPL has dedicated an entire site to asteroids and live streaming of them passing close to Earth. The Asteroid Watch dashboard monitors asteroids and comets that will pass near Earth, even those that were suprisingly recorded due to being undetected the first time.
"For each encounter, the dashboard indicates the time of closest point, the approximate object diameter, relative size, and distance from Earth," as per NASA JPL.
Related Article: Asteroid's Surprise Arrival, Close Flyby Gave Astronomers Massive Data, via Arecibo
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Written by Thea Felicity
