The largest asteroid in 2021, 2001 FO32, will fly by Earth on March 21. This is a diagram of the asteroid.
NASA says the largest asteroid of the year, about 1 kilometer in diameter, will fly by Earth on March 21. Although the asteroid is classified as “potentially hazardous,” it is expected to safely fly by the Earth at a distance of 2 million kilometers.
NASA noted that the asteroid, named 2001 FO32, was discovered 20 years ago and is about 3,000 feet (914 meters) in diameter. It will fly past Earth at 77,000 miles per hour (123,919 kilometers per hour), which is faster than most asteroids that approach Earth.
Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said 2001 FO32 would come no closer to Earth than 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers).
Although this is about 5.25 times the distance between Earth and the moon, it is still close enough to Earth that 2001 FO32 is classified as a “potentially hazardous” asteroid.
According to the Center, any asteroid less than 7.5 million kilometers from Earth and greater than 140 meters in diameter is classified as “potentially hazardous.
Little is known about this object, so this approach provides a great opportunity to get a lot of information about this asteroid,” said Lance Benner, chief scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “
NASA said astronomers hope to use the study of the asteroid’s reflection of light to better understand its size and composition.
When sunlight touches the asteroid’s surface, minerals on its rocks absorb some of the wavelengths and reflect the rest, NASA’s website reads. By studying the spectra of the reflected light, astronomers can learn the chemical composition of the minerals on the asteroid’s surface.
NASA also mentioned that more than 95 percent of near-Earth asteroids the size of 2001 FO32 or larger have been classified, and none of these classified asteroids will impact Earth in the next 100 years.
The biggest known threat is an asteroid called 2009 FD. According to NASA’s information, it has a risk of impacting the Earth in 2185, with a probability of about 0.2%.
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