Asteroid 2023 BU to have ‘very close encounter’ with Earth today, says NASA

The size of the delivery truck asteroid will pass Earth in one of the closest-ever recorded encounters. Asteroid 2023 BU will be coming within a tenth of the distance of orbit with most communication satellites in the atmosphere. In a statement, NASA said that the newly discovered asteroid would pass 3,600 km above the southern tip of South America at 7:27 pm US eastern time on Thursday, January 26 or 12:27 am GMT on Friday, January 27.

Noting that there would not be any danger, NASA also stated that the asteroid would be a near miss with no chance of hitting Earth. Scientists have also said that the asteroid would burn up in the atmosphere and its bigger pieces can fall as meteorites.



The impact hazard assessment system of the US space agency, named ‘Scout’, has ruled out a strike. Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed Scout said in a statement that “Scout quickly ruled out 2023 BU as an impactor, but despite the very few observations, it was nonetheless able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach with Earth” before noting that it would be one of the closest approach by a known near-Earth object to ever be registered.

Asteroid 2023 BU was discovered by astronomer Gennadiy Borisov from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday, January 21, NASA stated. The US space agency further elaborated that while any asteroid in Earth’s proximity will experience a change in trajectory due to the gravity of the planet, Asteroid 2023 BU “will come so close that its path around the Sun is expected to be significantly altered”.

FAQs:

1. What is an asteroid?
   Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun.
2. Who discovered Asteroid 2023 BU?
   Asteroid 2023 BU was discovered by astronomer Gennadiy Borisov