It will be the closest this particular asteroid has come to Earth for at least the last 400 years.
Thanks to Armageddon and numerous other doomsday movies over the years, the mere mention of the word ‘asteroid’ is enough to make many of us think the world is on the verge of ending, unless you can find someone to go up, drill a hole in it and deflect it off course, that is.
As a result, news that a massive asteroid is going to fly by Earth next week is bound to make some people a little uncomfortable, especially one that’s roughly 650 metres in size.
No need to worry, however, because while NASA acknowledge that the asteroid 2014 JO25 will be closer to Earth next Wednesday, April 19, than it has been for at least 400 years, they also say “there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet”.
Well, thank God for that.
The asteroid in question, according to a NASA statement, was discovered in May 2014 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson in Arizona.
Not only is it big, but it is shiny too, with a surface that’s about twice as reflective as the surface of the moon.
Although it will pass by Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon), it will become visible in the night sky after April 19.
Clip via JPLraw
NASA say the asteroid is predicted to brighten to about magnitude 11, when it could be visible in small optical telescopes for one or two nights before it fades as the distance from Earth rapidly increases.
Astronomers around the world intend to observe the asteroid at its closest point to Earth on April 19, with NASA saying that radar images from NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico could reveal surface details as small as a few metres.
For more information about the asteroid between now and next week, check out Asteroid Watch on Twitter.
