A comet seen with the naked eye and an asteroid threatening the Earth... What is happening in our sky these days?
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah announced, through its official account on Twitter, that the virtual telescope project will today, at 10:15 pm Mecca time, live cover the crossing of the asteroid 2023 BU, which has a diameter of about 5 meters, from a distance very close to the globe at an altitude of 3,500 meters. Just a kilometer but there is no danger of it crashing.
Astronomy enthusiasts have been following since the days of the passage of a comet near Earth, which is the first of its kind since 2020. The ZTF comet can be seen with the eye or with binoculars if conditions are available for that. At the same time, astronomy researchers were surprised by the passage of an asteroid on Thursday-Friday night at a very close distance from us, without having observed it long enough before. Fortunately, the asteroid 2023BU did not pose a threat to Earth as it continued its way through space. However, questions are being asked about early detection systems for "killer" asteroids. In this paragraph, we also answer the question: What is the difference between the terms comet, asteroid, and meteorite?
The possibility of asteroid 2023 BU colliding with Earth
2023 BU is an asteroid so small that it will be difficult to see with the naked eye, its size is 3.8 * 8.5 meters, the size of a large bus, and it shines at a maximum of 11.3 degrees, so it is necessary to see it using large and powerful telescopes, such as telescopes that have at least 14-inch lenses.
According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell, the small asteroid was inside the moon's orbit yesterday at noon, and indicated that scientists had studied and calculated its orbit, and confirmed that there were no chances of the asteroid 2023 BU hitting the planet Earth.
Asteroid impact on the atmosphere
According to NASA, space rocks less than 25 meters in diameter are most likely to burn if they enter the Earth's atmosphere, which causes very little or no damage to the Earth, but after burning some shattered parts may fall out in the form of small meteorites.
Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA, said: A collision of the asteroid 2023 BU with Earth has been ruled out, but despite this, the asteroid will noticeably approach Earth, to be recorded as one of the closest foreign objects to pass on Earth.
He added that although the asteroid will pass through the upper region of our planet's atmosphere, known as the exosphere, it will not affect us.
Source: websites