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‘Doubtlessly hazardous’ asteroid to fly by Earth on March 21, however no menace of collision, NASA says

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – An asteroid predicted to be the largest to fly past Earth this year will approach the planet closest on the first full day of spring, according to NASA.

But don’t worry, because there is “no danger” of it falling to earth, assures the space agency.

The asteroid, dubbed the 2001 FO32, will be within 1.25 million miles of our planet on March 21, NASA said in a statement.

While that’s roughly 5.25 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, it’s still considered close in astronomical terms. For this reason, the space rock has been classified by NASA as a “potentially dangerous asteroid”.

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It is expected to be the largest asteroid zoomed from Earth in 2021, with a length comparable to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, EarthSky reports.

Astronomers have been tracking FO32 in 2001 since its discovery 20 years ago, according to Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We know the 2001 FO32 orbit,” Chodas said in the press release. “There’s no chance the asteroid will get closer than 1.25 million miles to Earth.”

In fact, according to NASA, there is no danger of an asteroid colliding with the planet in the centuries to come.

The near-Earth asteroid will fly by at about 77,000 miles per hour, faster than most that hit the planet. This is due to its “sharply inclined and elongated (or eccentric) orbit around the sun,” the agency said.

This diagram shows the elongated and inclined orbit of 2001 FO32 on its orbit around the sun (white ellipse). (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

The rocky body “like a skateboarder rolling down a half pipe” will pick up speed as it navigates further into the inner system, and according to Release it will only slow down after being thrown back into space. The asteroid then swings back into the solar system and towards the sun.

All in all, it will take 2001 FO32 about 810 days, or about 27 months, to complete orbit.

However, the asteroid will not come close to Earth again in another 31 years – until 2052 – if it passes at a distance of about 1.75 million miles.

So next weekend’s approach will offer astronomers a rare opportunity to better understand it, according to NASA. Some things you will be looking at are size, brightness, and composition.

“Little is known about this object at the moment, so the very close encounter provides an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid,” said Lance Benner, senior scientist at JPL, in the press release.

For example, he noted that “20 years of observations have shown that approximately 15% of near-Earth asteroids comparable in size to 2001 FO32 have a small moon.”

The asteroid will appear brightest in the southern sky as it approaches, meaning those in the southern hemisphere and the lower parts of the northern hemisphere have the best views, according to Chodas.

But it won’t be visible to the naked eye.

To see the asteroid, Chodas recommends using a medium-sized telescope with an aperture of at least 20 inches on the nights before March 21. But those trying to see it will likely still need starting cards to find it.

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