A small rocky body, the size of a truck, will graze the Earth, Thursday, January 26. The asteroid 2023 BU, which is between 4 and 8 meters in diameter, will zoom through the sky 3,600 kilometers above the surface of the planet, barely a tenth of the distance that separates us from our communication satellites. .
However, this close encounter does not present any risk of collision, NASA said. Even if its trajectory crossed that of the Earth, the danger posed by BU 2023 would remain low, since an object 8 kilometers in diameter disintegrates 30 kilometers above the ground. An event of this type occurs every five years.
A newly discovered asteroid, named 2023 BU, is expected to make one of the closet approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded. Thanks to diligent teams of #planetarydefense experts, we know It poses zero risk to Earth.
Learn why: https://t.co/MBLpHqb7h7pic.twitter.com/j9McEGrOVm
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) January 25, 2023
The asteroid was only discovered on January 21 by amateur astronomer Gennady Borissov in Crimea. In 2019, he was the very first to observe an interstellar comet, named 2I/Borisov.
Visible to the naked eye in France
At 3,600 kilometers above Earth, asteroid 2023 BU will pass below geostationary orbit, where many communication satellites are placed 36,000 kilometers from our planet. However, 2023 BU remains above the satellites placed in low orbit, 2,000 kilometers from the earth’s surface. As for the international space station, it orbits the Earth at an altitude of only 340 kilometers.
Asteroid 2023 BU will be visible to the naked eye in France Thursday evening at 10:17 p.m., a time likely to be advanced or reversed depending on its trajectory. It will also be observable live on the site of the European virtual telescope.
Among the objects that passed closest to Earth, asteroid 2023 BU will occupy the fourth position, behind 2020 VTA 4, which had spun 370 kilometers from the surface, 2020 HQ (2,950 kilometers) and 2021 UA1 (3,047 kilometers ).
The diameter of these asteroids remains relatively small. Nothing to do with asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) and its diameter of 1.8 kilometers. Fortunately, it did not approach within 4 million kilometers during its passage through our neighborhood last May, ten times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.