NASA Reports A 110-Foot Asteroid Is Heading Earth’s Way At High Speed
Astronomers keep a watchful eye on the sky for any asteroids that may be coming uncomfortably close to Earth. The Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks these asteroids and comets that closely approach our home planet. It posts the dates of the closest approach, the approximate diameter of the space rock, and the relative size and distance it will be from Earth. According to this nifty tool, five of these objects are making a close approach to Earth within the next few days, with the largest spanning 180-feet (55-meters) in diameter.
Following the two space rocks zipping by Earth today, there will be three more making close approaches over the next three days. 2016 LK49 is a space rock with a diameter of around 70-feet (21-meters) and will come within 4.1 million miles (6.7 million kilometers) of Earth on June 19, 2023. 2023 LT1 is 49-feet (15-meters) in diameter and will come the closest to Earth at an estimated 427,000 miles (687,000 kilometers) on June 20, 2023. Finally, 2023 HF1 has a diameter of approximately 180-feet (55-meters) and will fly by Earth at a distance of roughly 3 million miles (4.8 million kilometers) on June 21, 2023.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lists any object larger than about 150-meters that can approach Earth within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) as a potentially hazardous object. This is about 19.5 times the distance to the moon, with the average distance between Earth and the moon being about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers). All five of these asteroids are too small to qualify as potentially hazardous, but it is reassuring to know that they can be spotted and tracked none-the-less.
