Asteroid travelling at 33,300mph set to enter Earth's atmosphere this week
An asteroid travelling at 33,300 mph is set to enter Earth's atmosphere this week - but luckily it should miss the planet. Asteroid 2023 BU was discovered on Saturday, January 21, but it's making quite a stir in the astronomy world as it's moving right towards us.
It is set to travel roughly 6,500 miles past the centre of the Earth, which is a tiny distance in astronomical terms, as the Daily Star reports. To put it a simpler way, the asteroid will be within just three per cent of the average distance between the Earth and the moon - making this an incredibly close call.
The asteroid is travelling at 33,300mph, but luckily it will miss earth (Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)What do you think about the chances of an asteroid strike? Let us know in the comments...
It makes the space rock the fourth-nearest of 35,000 past and future Earth approaches, according to data collected by NASA 's Centre for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) for the 300 years from 1900 to 2200.
According to the CNEOS data, the space rock only measures between 12.4ft and 27.8ft across, meaning it would be of little threat even if it was heading for Earth.
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NASA states asteroids smaller than 82ft (25m) across will most likely burn up when they enter Earth's atmosphere, leading to little or no damage on the ground.
Regardless, space boffins ruled out the possibility of collision this week.
However, the asteroid will come into our atmosphere - specifically the exosphere, the outermost layer that extends some 6,000miles.
You will be able to watch the asteroid whizz past our planet on a livestream courtesy of robotic, remote-controlled telescopes. They are part of the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) being operated by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Ceccano, Italy.
The live feed is due to start on Thursday (January 26) at 7.15pm.
Previously, it was predicted that an enormous asteroid twice the size of Big Ben could smash into Earth with five years of 2018, according to NASA, but thankfully it's not happened yet.
The asteroid, dubbed 2018 LF16, is predicted to potentially impact our planet on August 8, 2023.
Thankfully, the chances of this are very low, with NASA predicting a 99.9999967 per cent chance of a miss.
Asteroid 2018 LF16 is around 700ft (213 metres) wide - roughly twice the size of Big Ben's clock tower in London, or the same size as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
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