NASA expects the space rock dubbed Asteroid 2019 UJ3 to approach Earth tomorrow (October 31). According to the US space agency, the asteroid is flying towards Earth on a “close approach” trajectory. At its closest, NASA said the rock will appear around 12.37pm GMT (8.37am EDT).
What do we know about the asteroid approaching Earth?
The asteroid flying towards our planet has been officially designated Asteroid 2019 UJ3.
NASA’s first observations of the space rock were collected on October 19, 2019.
The asteroid is an Apollo-type space rock, meaning it crosses Earth’s orbit on a path similar to Asteroid 1862 Apollo.
NASA has also classified the asteroid an NEO or Near-Earth Object.
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According to the European Space Agency (ESA), NEOs are comets and asteroids orbiting the Sun from a distance of 1.3 astronomical units.
ESA said: “The term ‘near-Earth object’ basically refers to any natural object, like an asteroid, whose orbit brings it close to Earth.
“As of March 2019, we knew of more than 600,000 asteroids in our Solar System.
“Of these, around 20,000 are near-Earth objects, 800 of which are in ESA’s risk list, meaning that they merit close follow-up observations.”
Asteroid UJ3 is estimated to measure somewhere in the range of 55.7ft to 124.6ft (17m to 38m) in diameter.
We knew of more than 600,000 asteroids in our Solar System
European Space Agency (ESA)
At the upper end of NASA’s estimate, the space rock is comparable in height to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.
At the lower end of NASA’s estimate, the asteroid is comparable in length to a bowling lane.
During tomorrow’s flyby, the asteroid will reach “nominal speeds” of 8.59km per second or 19,215mph (30,924kph).
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Thankfully, NEOs often come flying past our planet without any threat of impact.
NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth.
“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
Asteroid UJ3 is expected to approach Earth tomorrow from a distance of about 0.01871 astronomical units.
A single astronomical unit describes the distance between our planet and the Sun – about 93 million miles (149.6 million km).
In other words, Asteroid UJ3 will trim this down to a safe 1.7 million miles (2.79 million km) tomorrow.
This is approximately 7.28 times the distance from the Moon to the Earth.
After the flyby, the space rock will visit Earth’s corner of space again on September 15, 2020.
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