The asteroid will pass near Earth this Thursday (26)

This Thursday (26), a asteroid It will pass very close to the Earth the size of a bus, but calm down, there is no need to panic.. The rocky object is unlikely to hit our planet, but it will be only 3600 kilometers away.

Nominated by 2023 THISThe asteroid was discovered by Russian amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who spotted it while making astronomical observations in Nauchnyi, Crimea. The detection was confirmed only last week, and hence the object was named 2023 BU – its estimated size is between 3.5 and 8.5 meters in diameter.

According to scientists from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun will change as it passes near Earth. So the planet’s gravity will pull 2023 BU and change its old orbit.

“Before the encounter with Earth, the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun was nearly circular, which roughly corresponds to Earth’s orbit and takes 359 days to complete its orbit around the Sun. After the encounter, the asteroid’s orbit will be longer, moving up and down. NASA published this week. “The asteroid will then complete its orbit every 425 days,” said an official statement.

It won’t fall to Earth for now…

Had the asteroid been on a collision course with Earth, the rock would likely have disappeared from the planet’s atmosphere. However, it would produce a beautiful visual: people would imagine a fireball cutting through the sky in the area it entered – something similar to what happened in Russia a few years ago, caught by a car’s security camera. Russia.

The main concern should be in the giant asteroids, which ended the life of the dinosaurs about 14 kilometers wide – the rocky object created the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, about 180 kilometers in diameter.

How to see the asteroid 2023 BU?

The asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, but some YouTube channels will broadcast live. For example, you can watch the video below from the Virtual Telescope Project and watch the orbit of 2023 BU. In South America, the object will pass shortly after 21:00 (Brasília time).

” [sistema de avaliação de risco de impacto] Scout immediately dismissed 2023 BU as a multiplier, but despite several observations, he was able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth. “Actually, this is one of the closest approximations of a near-Earth object ever recorded,” said Davide Farnocchia, the navigation engineer who developed the Scout.