Massive asteroid to fly past Earth Tuesday
Posted November 7, 2011 9:13 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A massive asteroid is scheduled to fly past Earth on Tuesday, much to the delight of professional and amateur astronomers.
At its closest, Asteroid 2005 YU55 will come within 323,000 kilometres (201,000 miles) of Earth. NASA said Tuesday that will occur at approximately 6:28 p.m. ET. There’s no chance of impact, NASA said.
The giant rock is 400 metres (or 1,300 feet) wide, about the size of an aircraft carrier. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be monitoring it with agency’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif.
“It’s going to be moving very rapidly as it traverses the Earth on November 7, 8, 9, and 10,” research scientist Lance Benner told Reuters.
“In effect it will be moving straight at us from one direction and then it will go whizzing by so its motion across the sky will be close to 180 degrees.”
Scientists say it’s rare for a space rock this size to come quite this close: On average, it only happens once every 25 years.
Do you have a better name for the asteroid? Let us know in the comments
