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A giant asteroid named 2010 FR will fly over Earth today. The asteroid is huge, said to be about twice the size of the pyramid of Giza in Egypt. NASA is tracking the asteroid as it passes Earth, but it has a near zero percent chance of hitting Earth.
NASA expects 2010 FR to pass our planet at a distance of 4.6 million miles. That is about 19 times the distance from the earth to the moon. The physical dimensions of the asteroid are approximately 886 feet tall and essentially the same width. 2020 FR is classified as an Apollo category asteroid because it crosses the path of Earth’s orbit.
Besides being a large asteroid, it also travels extremely fast at 14 kilometers per second. Scientists are taking the opportunity to study the asteroid as it passes our planet. The Virtual Telescope Project will take images of the space rock.
Taking pictures of an asteroid still very far from our planet is a difficult thing to do. The Virtual Telescope Project says the photos it took were taken in less than ideal conditions. The image below shows the asteroid when it was about 7.8 million kilometers from Earth. Is he. Indicated by the arrow in the center of the image.
The asteroid is considered “potentially dangerous” because, although it will pass far from Earth today, it could collide with the planet at some point in the future. As asteroids make their often long orbits, interactions with the sun or other planets could change their orbit. Any asteroid with a minimum orbital intersection distance of 0.05 AU or less is considered potentially dangerous.
