Space rock up to 460 feet wide and ‘Christmas asteroid will pass by Earth this holiday season.
The object, which poses no threat to our planet, will come within 420,000 miles (680,000km) during its closest approach on Thursday.
Stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere will get the best view of the asteroid, but those in Europe will also be able to see it between now and December 19.
To celebrate the close approach, the European Space Agency is calling on amateur astronomers to find and photograph the space rock 2015 RN35.
Look up! A 460-foot-wide space rock dubbed the “Christmas asteroid” will fly past Earth this holiday season (stock photo)
Key details: The object, which poses no threat to our planet, will come within 420,000 miles (686km) during its closest approach on Thursday.
“We don’t call it a call without reason. 2015 RN35 will not shine brightly in the sky like the Star of Bethlehem did millennia ago,” the agency said in a blog post on its website.
‘No. Smaller than the Statue of Liberty, this asteroid is astronomically small. As flights travel half as far to the moon, they are unlikely to make headlines.
Nevertheless, ESA said telescopes 11 inches (30 cm) and larger should be able to detect the Christmas asteroid.
‘We await your observations!’ the agency added.
‘Use the hashtag #ESAChristmasAsteroid on social media to share your findings, we will share it on our @esaoperations channel.’
The asteroid is particularly interesting to scientists because it is not well known.
Experts don’t know what it’s made of, exactly how big it is, or how it spins on its axis.
They also don’t know its orbit very well, although they have confirmed that it won’t hit Earth for at least the next century.
This uncertainty makes it like the hundreds of thousands of asteroids out there of the same size.
Although almost all of the giant planet killers have been found by scientists, most of the medium-sized asteroids, such as this Christmas asteroid, have yet to be discovered.
According to experts, there are several hundreds of thousands of them, and if they collide with the Earth, they can cause great damage to the local area.
The asteroid is particularly interesting to scientists because it is not well known. Although almost all of the giant planet killers have been found by scientists, most of the medium-sized asteroids, such as this Christmas asteroid, have yet to be discovered.
Stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere will get the best view of the asteroid, but those in Europe will also be able to see it between now and December 19.
To help amateur and professional astronomers find the Christmas asteroid, ESA has a “toolkit” that is free for anyone to use.
It allows people to visualize the orbit of the space rock and its December 15 flyby, including when it will be visible from different parts of Earth.
Observers using the New Near-Earth Object (NEO) Toolkit can also learn more about the Apollo group of asteroids to which a world belongs while planning how and where to find it, depending on where exactly it is.
ESA’s asteroid instrument suite was created by the agency’s Rome-based Near-Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC).
“We use these tools every day to plan our observations, visualize asteroid close approaches, and understand and explain the various asteroid populations in the Solar System and the risk we face,” said Juan-Luis Cano, data systems manager. NEOCC.
“We want them to be as useful to the rest of the world as they are to us, because protecting the planets is a global effort.”
Experts don’t know the Christmas asteroid’s orbit very well, but they have confirmed that it won’t hit Earth for at least the next century.
Richard Moissl, ESA’s head of planetary protection, said: “This is the kind of work that ESA’s NEOCC does every day, often with larger telescopes such as the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and others. NEOCC’s network of fast access telescopes is spread around the world.
“With these observations, we determine the movement of asteroids and predict their path into the future to know when an asteroid might strike.
“As the recent DART impact has shown, and as ESA’s Hera mission will expand, an asteroid strike with sufficient warning is the only natural disaster we can avoid.”
Included in the toolkit for hunting asteroids Observation Planning Tool, Sky Chart Display Tool, Orbit visualization tool and Flyby Visualization Tool.
For more information on how to use it, Click here.
If you enjoyed this article…
Stargazing fans can too Enjoy the Geminid Meteor Shower that peaks tomorrow night (Wednesday).
to go a new interactive map brought to life the 1998 film Deep Impactallows users to launch a space rock anywhere globally to track debris
Also, one study suggests that Dinosaurs weren’t actually in decline when a giant asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago.
