This image provided by the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy shows a single asteroid exposed for 180 seconds as it approached Earth, about 4 million miles away, on Thursday, January 31, 2024. Astronomers say an asteroid as large as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million kilometers. kilometers from Earth on Friday. There is no chance of it hitting us since it will cross seven times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Credit: Virtual Telescope Project via AP
An asteroid the size of a skyscraper will pass less than 2.7 million kilometers from Earth on Friday.
Don’t worry: there is no chance of it hitting us since it will cross seven times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies estimates that the space rock measures between 690 and 1,575 feet (210 meters and 480 meters) in diameter. This means the asteroid could be similar in size to New York’s Empire State Building or Chicago’s Willis Tower.
Discovered in 2008, the asteroid is designated as 2008 OS7. We won’t return until 2032, but that will be a much more distant encounter, remaining 45 million miles (72 million kilometers) away.
The innocuous flyby is one of many encounters this week. Three much smaller asteroids will also buzz harmlessly past Earth on Friday, measuring no more than tens of meters (meters) in diameter, and two more on Saturday. On Sunday, an asteroid about half the size of 2008 0S7 will pass by, staying 4.5 million miles (7.3 million kilometers) away.
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