Fresh off the heel ofSpooky the Halloween Asteroidcomes news of yet another celestial object coming to give us a sojourn during an crucial calendar upshot . But have no reverence , this space rock ‘n’ roll wo n’t be the Grinch that eradicate Christmas .
Asteroid 2003 SD220 , also known asasteroid 163899,is scheduled to make its closest glide path to Earth on Christmas Eve , a.k.a . December 24 , 2015 . At more than 28 times the moon ’s space , NASA says it ’s nothing to worry about .
NASA / JPL / NHATS .
Discovered back in 2003 , the aim is slated to skim past Earth at a very comfortable space of 6,700,000 mile ( around 11 million km ) , or 0.074 AU . At that space , it will only be visible to professional and recreational uranologist , who should be able-bodied to trance optimal persona of the giant space careen .
Perhaps the only noteworthy thing about asteroid 2003 SD220 , apart from its Christmas visit , is its sizing . other estimates placed it between 0.7 to 1.5 mile ( 1.1 to 2.5 km ) in duration , but more late observations come out it around 1.25 statute mile ( 2 kilometer ) . Asteroid 2003 SD220 is currently moving at a speed of 17.5 miles / second , and come out to exhibit a very sluggish rotation of about one week .
The aim , which kind of resembles a fix or a chicken finger , will make its next reappearance in 2018 . NASA order the aim wo n’t pose a menace to Earth for at least the next two centuries .
citation : Aricebo Observatory / NASA / NSF via EarthSky .
Contrary tosome medium study , the asteroid will not actuate earthquakes when it make its closest glide slope . As Eddie Irizarrywritesat EarthSky :
Those assertions are misleading and wrong . Even if 2003 SD220 were passing closer , it ’s doubtful earthquakes would result . In fact , there ’s no scientific evidence that an asteroid ’s flyby can cause any seismic activity , unless it collides with Earth , but — in this case — that clearly will not be the casing .
The object is onNASA ’s NHATS listof possible human - approachable targets , so astronomers put to work at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and Goldstone in California will be tracking the asteroid over the coming weeks .
[ NASA|EarthSky ]
asteroidsAstronomyNASAScienceSpace
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