The giant asteroid in question (465824) is referred to as the 2010 FR, which will make an approach closer to our planet on September 6, at a distance of 162 meters in diameter, the asteroid in question is a true giant – measuring the same height of the Blackpool tower and almost twice the size of a large bean. And it’s not only huge, but also exceptionally fast – traveling a total of 14 kilometers per second.
Thanks to us, the 2010 FR will pass at close distances of more than 7.5 million kilometers from Earth, but the giant space rock has still piqued the interest of astronomers.
As the asteroid was approaching Earth on September 4, researchers from the Virtual Telescope project stepped in to take some action shots of the approaching space stock.
Since the asteroid was more than 7.8 million kilometers away at the time of the photograph, it was definitely an impressive place.
The Virtual Telescope Project said: “The telescope carefully detects the apparent motion of the asteroid, so the stars result in a long train, while the planet looks like a sharp point of light in the center of the image. It is marked by an arrow.
“The full moon wasn’t too far into the sky, so the image was taken under low-ideal conditions: despite this, the asteroid 2010 FR looks good.
“At the time of imaging, the asteroid (465824) 2010 FR was about 7.8 million kilometers from Earth and was slowly approaching us.”
Despite the fact that asteroids pass at a distance comparable to the distance between the Earth and the Moon, NASA still considers it “potentially dangerous.”
The term ‘potentially dangerous’ refers to the feeling that somewhere in the solar system’s history a planet could collide with the Earth depending on the future orbit of its Sun.
Read more: Asteroid News: Space rock study reveals Earth’s water source
“Scientific interest in comets and asteroids is largely due to their position, as the relatively intact fossils from the formation process of the solar system about 6. billion billion years ago.
“The massive outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) formed by the aggregation of billions of comets, and the bits and pieces on the left side of this formation process, are the comets we see today.
“Similarly, today there are bits and fragments left from the initial aggregation of the inner planets, which include the eclipse planet Venus, Earth and Mars.”
