This week, Earth is in for a celestial spectacle as it braces for close encounters with not one or two, but five asteroids.
As per NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard, leading this stellar cast is the colossal Asteroid 2008 OS7, a celestial behemoth rivalling the dimensions of a Fifa-accredited football stadium, measuring a staggering 890 feet (0.27 kilometres) across.
Discovered by NASA in 2008, this cosmic giant is poised to zoom past our planet on February 2. The cosmic pas de deux, as per NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will happen at a distance of 1.77 million miles—a cosmic closeness that, while safe, manages to stir the curiosity of avid skygazers.
Other asteroids gracing Earth’s skies
2008 OS7 is not the sole luminary in this cosmic parade. Four celestial companions, varying in size from a house to a building, are also set to make stellar flybys.
On Sunday (Jan 28th) Asteroid 2024 AU4, a 260-feet-wide celestial object the size of a big building, zoomed past Earth at a secure distance of 3.92 million miles.
Tuesday (Jan 30th) will witness the arrival of 2007 EG, an asteroid akin in size to an aeroplane — 130 feet (0.04 km), making its celestial approach at 3.8 million miles.
Thursday (Feb 1st) marks the entrance of two more cosmic voyagers: Asteroid 2024 BY, a house-sized wanderer — 62 feet (0.02 km), pirouetting at 1.57 million miles, and Asteroid 2003 BM4, a celestial aviator of aeroplane dimensions — 120 feet (0.04 km), traversing at 2.06 million miles.
NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth. “The dashboard displays the next five Earth approaches to within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometres or 19.5 times the distance to the moon); an object larger than about 150 meters that can approach the Earth to within this distance is termed a potentially hazardous object,” states the JPL website.
(With inputs from agencies)
