Close Approach: Big Asteroid 1998 Or2 To Flyby Earth Today

29 Apr, 2020 10:46 IST|Sakshi
Close Approach: Big Asteroid 1998 Or2 To Flyby Earth Today

A large near-Earth asteroid called 1998 OR2 will safely pass by our planet on Wednesday morning, providing astronomers with an exceptional opportunity to study the 1.5-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) object in detail. This was reported in the NASA website.

The asteroid, make its closest approach at 5:55 a.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. PDT). While this is known as a "close approach" by astronomers, it's still very far away: The asteroid will get no closer than about 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers), passing more than 16 times farther away than the Moon. As stated by NASA this asteroid poses no possibility of impact or threat now and not for at least the next 200 years ,it said in its official page.

Asteroid 1998 OR2 was discovered by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in July 1998.

Its next close approach to Earth will occur in 2079, when it will pass by closer — only about four times the lunar distance.

Close approaches by large asteroids like 1998 OR2 are quite rare. The previous close approach by a large asteroid was made by asteroid Florence in September 2017. That 3-mile-wide (5-kilometer-wide) object zoomed past Earth at 18 lunar distances.

On average, asteroids of this size are expected to fly by our planet this close roughly once every five years.

Since they are bigger, asteroids of this size reflect much more light than smaller asteroids and are therefore easier to detect with telescopes.

It is extremely unlikely there could be an impact over the next century by one of these large asteroids, but efforts to discover all asteroids that could pose an impact hazard to Earth continue. (Source: NASA.gov)

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