An Asteroid The Size Of Two Football Pitches Will Make Its Closest Approach To Earth This Century On April ‘Fool’s Day’
Where: Studio/office – Chino Hills, CA USA When: 6-1-2020 Who/What: The represented asteroid is my … [+]
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A few weeks after a piano-sized asteroid hit Earth another space rock will make its closest approach to our planet in the 21st century on April 1, 2022.
Asteroids are rocky leftovers from the formation of our Solar System about 4.6 billion years ago. Mostly they hang out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Not asteroid 2007 FF1.
Though classed as “potentially hazardous,” asteroid 2007 FF1 will come to within 4.5 million miles/7.4 million kilometers and therefore be no risk at all for our planet. In fact, it will be
So why is 2007 FF1—which was recently photographed by the Virtual Telescope Project—classed as “potentially hazardous?”
Up to 283 yards/259 meters wide—roughly the length of two football pitches—2007 FF1 orbits the Sun every 684 days. It travels at up to 15 miles per second/24 kilometers per second.
Crucially for that “potentially hazardous” label, 2007 FF1’s orbital path intersects Earth’s orbital path around the Sun.
So just occasionally it comes very close to Earth.
2007 FF1 has seven close approaches to Earth predicted this century, with its pass on April 1, 2022 the closest.
That time will come at 21:35 UTC according to NASA.
The next close approach of asteroid 2007 FF1 to Earth will occur on August 22, 2035.
2007 FF1 is classed as an Apollo asteroid, a class of objects named for asteroid 1862 Apollo. Such asteroids have an orbit that is larger than Earth’s orbit around the Sun and their path crosses Earth’s path.
The current known asteroid count is: 1,113,527 according to NASA.
Although 2007 FF1 was discovered way back in 2007, much smaller asteroids are now being found when they’re very close to Earth thanks to more advanced sky surveys like NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
