Asteroid 2021 EQ3 will pass closer than the moon.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
A particularly large asteroid will pass close by Earth on Monday night, and this encounter will be streamed live online. Don’t worry: the flyby will be completely safe and not a threat to anything or anyone on Earth or any of our satellites. But asteroid 2021 EQ3 will be closer to Earth than our single natural satellite.
Sky surveys and other telescopes detect a space rock passing close to the moon in an average of a few days. Most of these asteroids are only a few meters around, probably not larger than the bus.
Asteroid 2021 EQ3, however, can have a diameter of up to 125 feet (38 meters), making it the size of a small apartment building. It’s also about the same size as a meteor Surrounded by the atmosphere above Russia in 2013, Creating a shock wave that blew thousands of windows down in the city of Chelyabinsk, inflicting hundreds of injuries.
2021 EQ3 will pass close to you on PT at about 9:45 pm on Monday night, at a distance of about 173,000 miles (278,000 kilometers) – that is 72% of the Moon’s distance from Earth.
You may have seen the headlines about that #Master It will fly safely through Earth on March 21st. While the planet, known as the 2001 FO32, is large, it will safely zip past the Earth at a distance of 3 1.3 million miles, five times farther than the Moon – and there is no risk of it hitting. Earth. pic.twitter.com/oZZG5UaFsf
– NASA Asteroid Watch (Asterid Edwatch) March 8, 2021
This makes 2021 EQ3 the second largest 20-budget approach to the moon in 2021.
It is also different 2001 FO32, which is a complete monster With a diameter around one mile. That asteroid is due to pass on March 21, but is five times farther from the moon.
The size of the asteroid also makes it a good makes budget for tracking, and a Virtual Telescope project based in Rome will stream a watch online watch party through its website.
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