The orbits of these asteroids can be altered by encounters with other space objects, Mars, or the powerful gravity of Jupiter. The rocky rubble is left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most asteroids can be found orbiting the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. "How many natural hazards are there that we could actually do something about and prevent for a billion dollars? There's not many," said Daly, whose work focuses on defending Earth from hazardous asteroids. Some astronomers consider relying only on statistical probabilities and estimates of asteroid populations an unnecessary risk, when improvements could be made to NASA's ability to detect them. It created a shockwave that shattered tens of thousands of windows and caused $33 million in damage, and no one saw it before it entered Earth's atmosphere. The roughly 20-meter meteor that exploded in 2013 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, is a once-every-100-years event, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We don't know where most of the asteroids are that can cause local to regional devastation," said Terik Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The asteroid will then complete one orbit every 425 days.But with current capabilities, astronomers can't see when such a rock targets Earth until days before it happens. After its encounter, the asteroid’s orbit will be more elongated, moving it out to about halfway between Earth’s and Mars’ orbits at its farthest point from the Sun. Before encountering Earth, the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun was roughly circular, approximating Earth’s orbit, taking 359 days to complete its orbit about the Sun. While any asteroid in Earth’s proximity will experience a change in trajectory due to our planet’s gravity, 2023 BU will come so close that its path around the Sun is expected to be significantly altered. Zoom in to travel along with your favorite spacecraft as they explore these fascinating near-Earth objects. “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded.”įully interactive, Eyes on Asteroids uses science data to help visualize asteroid and comet orbits around the Sun. “Scout quickly ruled out 2023 BU as an impactor, but despite the very few observations, it was nonetheless able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach with Earth,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed Scout. CNEOS calculates every known near-Earth asteroid orbit to provide assessments of potential impact hazards in support of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office ( PDCO). NASA’s Scout impact hazard assessment system, which is maintained by the Center for Near Earth Object Studies ( CNEOS) at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, analyzed the data from the MPC’s confirmation page and quickly predicted the near miss. Within three days, a number of observatories around the world had made dozens of observations, helping astronomers better refine 2023 BU’s orbit. After sufficient observations were collected, the MPC announced the discovery. Additional observations were reported to the Minor Planet Center ( MPC) – the internationally recognized clearinghouse for the position measurements of small celestial bodies – and the data was then automatically posted to the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page. The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, discoverer of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday, Jan.
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