‘Potentially hazardous’ asteroid to pass Earth next week; should you be worried?

An asteroid termed as “potentially hazardous” by astronomers is relatively close, but safe, and is soon approaching Earth next week. The asteroid, space rock, called 138971 (2001 CB21) is estimated to be up to 3,940 feet in diameter, making it bigger that the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

As per the reports, the asteroid is expected to reach its closest point to Earth on March 4 at 2:59 am Eastern Time. At this point, it is estimated that it will be travelling at more than 26,800 miles per hour, reported NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

While the news of asteroids nearing Earth could make anyone nervous, the good news is that it won’t pose any danger to us. The report has it that the asteroid is not expected to get any closer than about 3 million miles to Earth, which is more than 12 times further away than the moon.

Moreover, the asteroid may not even be quite as large as its upper estimate suggests. There is supposed to be a wide margin of error in the calculations for how big the asteroid might be. The lower estimate is much more modest—though still large—at 1,837 feet.

In any which way, this new 2001 CB21 attracted a lot of interest and an astronomer took its picture at the end of January as it approached Earth from a distance of more than 21.5 million times. Now since the asteroid is very close, the same astronomer has managed to click a photo of the asteroid once again.

Gianluca Masi, an astronomer at the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, clicked the image of 2001 CB21 on February 23, when it was about 6.2 million miles away, reported Newsweek. See the picture here. The asteroid on the image can be seen as a white dot in the image (at the center), indicated by the white arrow. The image has been captured from a single 120-second exposure shot taken remotely using a PlaneWave 17″ robotic telescope unit.

“The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, so it looks like a sharp dot, with surrounding stars appearing slightly elongated,” the Virtual Telescope Project website stated as quoted by Newsweek. “On the upper left, stars of the globular cluster NGC 5466 are also visible,” it added.

A time-lapse video of the asteroid moving through space was also compiled out of 139 images collected during the observation session, Newsweek reported.

“The advanced technology we use makes our telescopes among the best ones on the planet to track and share even the fastest, demanding asteroids. People often ask us why the number of near-Earth objects has apparently increased over the last [few] years. Actually, it is the continuously improving technology which is making it possible for us to spot smaller and smaller objects, which we were simply missing before,” Masi told Newsweek.