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A small asteroid zoomed previous Earth nearer than most satellites final week — and astronomers did not discover it till hours later.
Measuring an estimated 3.3 to 9.8 ft huge (1 to three meters), the asteroid posed no critical risk to Earth, ESA added, and certain would have burned up as a vibrant fireball had it reached Earth’s ambiance. However, even small asteroids can cause big problems for spacecraft — and this one happened to whip by at around the same altitude where the International Space Station usually orbits. Fortunately, no spacecraft were in the space rock’s path.
Space agencies like NASA and ESA track thousands of known near-Earth objects, carefully monitoring which ones pose the greatest risk of colliding with Earth. (Currently, no known objects pose a significant threat to our planet for at least 100 years). For an asteroid to be considered “potentially hazardous,” it must measure at least 460 feet (140 m) in diameter, and follow an orbit that comes within 4.65 million miles (7.48 million km) of Earth — or roughly 20 times the average distance between Earth and the moon. Asteroid 2025 TF falls far short of that size threshold, which may also explain why it evaded detection until after it had passed.
Astronomers at ESA’s Planetary Defence Office observed the asteroid shortly after it was discovered, ESA officials reported. NASA, which has paused all public communications during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, did not make any announcements about the asteroid — however, an entry for the asteroid has been up to date on NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies web site. The tiny house rock is just not anticipated to fly by our planet once more till April of 2087, based on NASA.
Earth might have dodged a “fireball” with this near-miss asteroid encounter, however skywatchers can count on extra fiery lights this week. The Draconid meteor bathe peaks on Wednesday (Oct. 8) — and whereas the show of capturing stars might be considerably dampened by the sunshine of the full Harvest Moon, the looks of vibrant fireball meteors is feasible. No asteroids play an element on this annual sky present; the Draconids come from icy particles left by the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which blazes by means of the inside photo voltaic system each 6.5 years.
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