While more space objects are scheduled to approach Earth this month, one astronomer used a virtual telescope to catch an asteroid the size of a home that traveled near enough Earth.
Gianluca Masi, the manager of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, obtained the image remotely with "Elena." He used a piece of robotic equipment from a single 120-second exposure.
The telescope tracked the asteroid's fast apparent speed, which is why stars seem like long trails. In the acquired picture, the asteroid showed us a clear dot of light in the middle.
Despite the generally dreary sky, scientists could picture the asteroid in question.
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 20: Stars illuminate the sky outside the window of a home on a clear night in Forest Hill on April 20, 2020 in London, England. The clear skies created by the New Moon coincide with the Lyrid meteor shower, an annual display caused by the Earth passing through a cloud of debris from a comet called C/186 Thatcher.
Giant Space Object As Big As A Home Zoomed Past Earth
The asteroid 2022 AC4 flew by Earth at a distance of 58,000 kilometers (more than 36,000 miles) on Tuesday. Newsweek said the distance appears to be substantial when compared to daily human journeys, yet it is less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon.
According to a video uploaded by Space Googlevesaire on YouTube, the asteroid is a member of the Apollo group and was initially found by the Mt. Lemmon Survey on Jan. 9, 2022. Furthermore, 2022 AC4 orbits the Sun in 1.59 Earth years (582 Earth days), traveling 272 million kilometers (more than 169 million miles) from the Sun and approaching 136 million kilometers (around 84 million miles).
2022 AC4 is claimed to have been the closest space object to Earth for the past two months. The said asteroid reached Earth's atmosphere at a speed of around 18,700 miles (30,095 kilometers) per hour. It has a diameter of between 14 and 31 feet, making it about the size of a big home.
The telescope acquired a single 120-second exposure shot of the asteroid as it moved across the sky. It was around 217,000 miles away during the sighting.
Asteroid 2022 AC4 NOT Dangerous
Despite its near approach, NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) does not identify 2022 AC4 as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), and no risks to our planet have been identified.
An asteroid must be anticipated to arrive close enough to Earth while also being massive enough to be categorized as potentially harmful.
An asteroid isn't considered a PHA if it can't reach Earth closer than 4.6 million miles or has a diameter of less than 500 feet, according to CNEOS.
CNEOS said the possibility for a PHA to make close Earth approaches does not guarantee a PHA will strike the Earth. It just signifies that such a threat is possible.
Experts, according to CNEOS, can better estimate the close-approach statistics and consequently their Earth-impact hazard by monitoring these PHAs and revising their orbits as new data become available.
More Asteroids Expected
The asteroid 2022 AC4 isn't the only celestial body that has recently attracted a lot of interest.
According to NASA, two asteroids are also anticipated to pass Earth on Jan. 13. The asteroids in question are 2022 AU5 and 2022 AQ2, both of which are about the size of a home.
On Jan. 18, an asteroid with a diameter of 3,500 feet will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet. Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) is the name of the space object in question.
This asteroid is around two-and-a-half times the size of the Empire State Building, and it will only pass past Earth, as Science Times previously stated. Due to its scope of 3,280 feet (almost 1,000 meters) in diameter, experts classified this space debris as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA).
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