Asteroids approaching Earth this week — but don’t panic
Five asteroids will pass Earth in the days before International Asteroid Day on Sunday.
But don’t worry — scientists say none of these sun-orbiting rocks pose any immediate risk to us.
Despite being classified as near-Earth asteroids due to their orbits’ proximity to our planet, the closest any of them will come this trip is more than 1.8 million miles, experts with NASA say. That’s more than seven times the distance between Earth and the moon.
“None of these objects have a chance of colliding with Earth over the next 100 years,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its Center for Near Earth Object Studies.
Asteroid Day commemorates the 1908 Tunguska event, in which an exploding meteor flattened a large forested area in Siberia, Russia. Fictional explanations of the event — often involving alien invaders — have been memorialized in the TV show “The X-Files,” movies and books.
The United Nations created Asteroid Day to educate people about asteroids and the potential risks they pose to Earth.
“(It) helps raise awareness of the need to for astronomers to find as many sizable near-earth objects as possible in case one of them is headed for impact with our planet,” said Paul Chodas, the NASA center’s director.
The center typically predicts several close approaches every day, Chodas said.
Two asteroids will pass Earth on Thursday.
One, 2019 NJ, is roughly the size of a commercial airplane. It will be about 4.1 million miles from our planet at its closest point.
The other is the much-larger asteroid designated 415029 (2011 UL21). With a diameter of more than one mile — picture the Golden Gate Bridge — it will get as close as about 4.13 million miles from Earth. This asteroid, which Farnocchia said has been extensively tracked since its discovery, is considered potentially hazardous — but it won’t cause any damage this week.
“This will be a significant event,” Farnocchia said in an email. “Objects of this size come this close to Earth once per decade, on average.”
On Friday, asteroid 2022 MM1 will come within 1.85 million miles of Earth, and asteroid 2010 XN will pass within 3.36 million miles of Earth on its journey. Both are roughly the size of commercial airliners.
Finally, on Saturday, asteroid 2022 HD1 will be about 3.92 million miles of Earth. It, too, is about the size of a commercial airplane.
“Given their size, these are routine close approaches that happen on a regular basis,” Farnocchia said.
To learn more about these and other asteroids, visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website at jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/next-five-approaches.