An astronomer captures a large asteroid passing in front of the Earth; Was it dangerous?

On Tuesday, a house-sized asteroid flew relatively close to Earth and an astronomer captured it through a virtual telescope.

Besides this asteroid, other space objects are expected to approach Earth this month, one of which is larger than the Empire State Building!

Asteroid warning: Huge space object flew past Earth

An asteroid known as 2022 AC4 passed on Tuesday, less than 58,000 kilometers from Earth. That might seem like a significant distance compared to daily human travel, but it’s less than a quarter of the distance to the Moon, per News Week.

For those unaware, Space Googlevesaire has stated that said asteroid is part of the Apollo Group, and was first discovered by Mt. Lemmon Survey on January 9, 2022. Additionally, 2022 AC4 orbits the Sun in 582 Earth days, or 1.59 Earth years, moving 272 million km away from the Sun and approaching 136 million km.

In the past two months, 2022 AC4 would be the closest space object to pass by Earth.

2022 AC4 approached Earth at a speed of approximately 18,700 miles per hour. Its diameter is estimated between 14 and 31 feet, making it about the size of a large house.

The manager of the virtual telescope project in Italy, Gianluca Masi, captured a photo of the asteroid flying above the planet.

The asteroid was observed across the sky by the telescope, which captured a single 120-second exposure photo. The asteroid was about 217,000 miles away at the time of capture.

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A virtual telescope captures an asteroid

According to the Virtual Telescope Project, the image was captured remotely with “Elena,” which is robotic equipment accessible to the Virtual Telescope from a single 120-second exposure.

The asteroid’s apparent fast speed was tracked by the telescope, which is why the stars appear as long trails. The asteroid appeared as a sharp point of light in the center of the captured image.

Despite the fact that the sky was mostly gloomy, astronomers were able to photograph said asteroid.

Is AC4 2022 dangerous?

Despite its close approach, NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) does not classify 2022 AC4 as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), and there was no threat to our planet.

To be classified as potentially dangerous, an asteroid must be predicted to come close enough to Earth while still being large enough.

The CNEOS also clarified that an asteroid is not considered a PHA if it cannot approach Earth within 4.6 million miles or has a diameter of less than 500 feet.

To further emphasize, CNEOS stated that “the potential to make near-Earth approaches does not mean that a PHA will impact Earth.”

“It only means that there is a possibility for such a threat. By monitoring these PHAs and updating their orbits as new observations become available, we can better predict close approach statistics and therefore their threat of d impact on the Earth”, continued the CNEOS.

Other asteroids that will approach Earth

Asteroid 2022 AC4 isn’t the only space object that’s gotten a lot of attention recently.

On January 18, an asteroid about 3,500 feet in diameter will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet. This space object is known as asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1).

As noted earlier, this asteroid is about two and a half times the size of the Empire State Building, and it will just pass by Earth. Additionally, this space junk is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid due to its size of 3,280 feet in diameter (PHA).

Although categorizing it as potentially harmful makes it look dangerous, that doesn’t mean it will impact the Earth.

Apart from that, there are also two asteroids that are expected to pass Earth on January 13. Said asteroids are 2022 AU5 and 2022 AQ2, both of which are comparable in size to a house.

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