There are several asteroids that make their close approach towards Earth every week but not all of them can be considered dangerous. NASA classifies asteroids as Potentially Hazardous if they come within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth and have a size bigger than 150 meters. The space agency recently revealed that several space rocks passed Earth at extremely close distances recently, though none were potentially world-ending asteroids.
That could have changed with a slight deflection in the asteroid's trajectory due to interaction with Earth's gravitational field which could have sent it tumbling towards Earth. NASA has revealed that another asteroid is on its way towards Earth. So, how close will this space rock pass by and how fast is it going?
Asteroid 2023 HH3 details
NASA has issued an alert against an asteroid named Asteroid 2023 HH3. This asteroid is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today, April 25. Its distance of close approach will be just 402,000 kilometers which is almost the same distance as the Moon! NASA further revealed that the asteroid is already on its way towards Earth, travelling at a staggering speed of 48051 kilometers per hour.
Asteroid 2023 HH3 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids which are a group of Near-Earth asteroids named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. In terms of size, the asteroid is almost 43 feet across, which makes it the same size as a bus.
How is an Asteroid Orbit Calculated?
An asteroid's orbit is computed by finding the elliptical path about the sun that best fits the available observations of the object using various space and ground-based telescopes such as NASA's NEOWISE telescope and its brand-new Sentry II algorithm. That is, the object's computed path about the sun is adjusted until the predictions of where the asteroid should have appeared in the sky at several observed times match the positions where the object was observed to be at those same time.
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