Largest asteroid to fly overland in 2021 ‘potentially dangerous’

Mark your calendars, folks, as the most known asteroid in 2021 will pass Earth on March 21 and is said to be ‘potentially dangerous’.

The space rock – known as the 2001 FO32 – is one of several near-Earth objects (NEOs) that orbit the sun, just like our planet.

NEOs are usually within 30 million miles – just to put this in context, the circumference of the Earth at the equator is just under 25,000 miles and so NEOs are fada way away.

According to NASA, about 25,000 NEOs have been identified and more than 2,100 have been classified as ‘potentially dangerous’ – just like the March 21 asteroid.

According to Newsweek, potentially dangerous NEOs are those with orbits approaching the Earth’s own orbit around the sun to within 4.6 million miles, and they also measure greater than about 460 feet in diameter.

2001 FO32 seems to meet both criteria to make it ‘potentially dangerous’ but this seems only to be true until they are found ‘for decades’ to ‘study’. how their orbits could ‘grow’, according to CNEOS director Paul Chodas.

NASA’s Jet Dedication Laboratory in California, estimates that it measures between 2,526 feet (0.47 miles) and 5,577 feet (1.05 miles) in diameter.

If you still need your mind to rest, NASA said that potentially dangerous asteroids are defined based on parameters that measure an asteroid ‘s ability to perform intrusive intimate operations. on Earth ‘.

NASA continued: “In particular, all asteroids with a minimum orbit transit speed (MOID) of 0.05 au or less are considered PHAs.

“Sometimes the gravitational pull of planets affects the orbital pathways of asteroids, causing them to change their orbits.

“Scientists believe that stray asteroids or fragments from earlier crashes have entered Earth in the past, playing a key role in the evolution of our planet.”

According to reports, the indoor asteroid will be about 1.2 million miles away from the earth at 11.03m ET (i.e. 4.03f GMT).