Washington: An asteroid known as 2023 BU is set to pass “extra ordinarily close” by Earth this Friday, NASA said.
The asteroid had been discovered four days ago by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, NASA said.
The asteroid is the size of a box truck and it will make the fourth closest approach to Earth on Friday at about 00:30 GMT (06:00 AM IST Friday and 19:30 ET Thursday).
Most asteroids pass beyond the distance of the Moon – which is 240,000 miles away – but 2023 BU at a distance of 2,100 miles (3,400 km) Friday is far closer and will be the nearest for 300 years.
The asteroid 2023 BU is about half the size of the famous Chelyabinsk meteor that hit Earth in 2013.
The asteroid is due to make the fourth closest pass of more than 35,000 past and future Earth approaches, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), which holds data covering the period from 1900 to 2200.
The asteroid has no risk of hitting our planet.
"Even if the asteroid did risk hitting Earth, it would turn into a fireball and largely disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere, with some of the bigger debris potentially falling as small meteorites", NASA said.
The agency did note that 2023 BU will come so close to the Earth that its path around the sun will be altered by the planet's gravity.
"After its encounter, the asteroid’s orbit will be more elongated, moving it out to about halfway between Earth’s and Mars’ orbits at its farthest point from the sun," NASA said in a statement.
For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App.
Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic.
