A space rock up to 460 feet wide and nicknamed the ‘Christmas asteroid” will fly past Earth this festive season.
The object, which poses no threat to our planet, will come within 420,000 miles (680,000 km) when it makes its closest approach on Thursday.
Astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere will have the best view of the asteroid, but those in Europe will also be able to spot it by December 19.
To mark the close approach, the European Space Agency is calling on amateur astronomers to find space rock 2015 RN35 and photograph it.
Look for! A space rock up to 460ft wide and dubbed the ‘Christmas Asteroid’ will pass Earth this festive season (stock image)
Key Details: The object, which poses no threat to our planet, will approach within 420,000 miles (686 km) when it makes its closest approach on Thursday
“We don’t call it a challenge for no reason. 2015 RN35 will not shine in the sky like the Star of Bethlehem did millennia ago,” the agency said in a blog post on its site. website.
‘Nope. Smaller than the Statue of Liberty, this asteroid is quite small on an astronomical scale. And as the flybys go on, just under twice the distance of the moon, it’s unlikely to make headlines.
Nevertheless, the ESA said telescopes 11 inches (30 cm) and larger should be able to detect the Christmas asteroid.
“We look forward to seeing your observations! adds the agency.
“Use the #ESAChristmasAsteroid hashtag on social media to share your results, which we’ll share on our channel @esaoperations.”
The asteroid is of particular interest to scientists because it is little known.
Experts don’t know what it’s made of, precisely how big it is, or whether it spins on its axis.
They don’t even know its orbit particularly well, although they have confirmed that at least it won’t hit Earth in the next century.
This uncertainty makes them hundreds of thousands of asteroids of similar size.
While nearly all of the huge planet killers have been discovered by scientists, most mid-sized asteroids like Christmas have yet to be discovered.
Experts believe there are several hundred thousand of them that could cause massive damage to a local area if they hit Earth.
The asteroid is of particular interest to scientists because it is little known. While almost all of the huge planet killers have been discovered by scientists, most mid-sized asteroids like Christmas have yet to be discovered.
Astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere will have the best view of the asteroid, but those in Europe will also be able to spot it by December 19.
To help amateur and professional astronomers locate the Christmas asteroid, the ESA offers a “toolbox” available to everyone free of charge.
It allows people to view the space rock’s orbit and its December 15 flyby, including when it will be visible from different places on Earth.
Observers using the new Near-Earth Object (NEO) Toolkit can also learn more about the Apollo asteroid group it belongs to, while planning how and where to spot it based on exactly where they are in the world. the world.
ESA’s Asteroid Toolkit was created by the agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC), based in Rome.
“We use these tools every day to plan our observations, to visualize close approaches to asteroids, and to help us understand and explain the diverse populations of asteroids in the solar system and the risk we face,” said said Juan-Luis Cano, information system manager at NEOCC.
“We want them to be as useful to the rest of the world as they are to us, because planetary defense is a global effort.”
Experts don’t know the Christmas asteroid’s orbit particularly well, but they’ve confirmed that at least it won’t hit Earth in the next century.
Richard Moissl, ESA’s head of planetary defense, said: “This is the kind of work ESA’s NEOCC does every day, often with even fainter asteroids using even bigger telescopes, such as the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and others in the NEOCC network of rapid access telescopes spans the globe.
“Through these observations, we determine the motion of asteroids and project their trajectory into the future, in order to know if – when – an asteroid might hit.
“As the recent DART impact has shown, and as ESA’s Hera mission will expand, with enough warning, an asteroid impact is the only natural disaster we can prevent.”
The Asteroid Hunting Toolkit includes the Observation planning tool, Sky map display tool, Orbit visualization tool and the Flyby visualization tool.
For more information on its use, Click here.
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