A particular space rock known as the 2020 UF3 recently shot by Earth back in October 22. Astronomers were luckily able to get a photo of the passing asteroid. According to the official Virtual Telescope Project, the asteroid was extremely close to earth at just a distance of only about 26,000 miles away from Earth. This is roughly only 11 percent of the whole distance between both the Moon and the Earth.
The 2020 UF3 Asteroid was coming in close and coming in fast
NASA's own data recently revealed that the said asteroid was flying at an unexpected speed of 13.6 miles per second or more than 49,000 miles per hour. Even the Virtual Telescope Project recently described the whole phenomenon as the fastest moving asteroid that the astronomical group had ever been able to observe, according to the website.
An article by Express UK continued the statement saying that the near-Earth asteroid known as the 2020 UF3 had safely come particularly close to the given planet being able to reach a minimum distance from the Earth of just about 42,000 kilometers or 26,000 miles. When calculated, this is only 11% of the average distance of the moon.
The Virtual Telescope facility gave their statements regarding the distant asteroid
The Virtual Telescope facility stated that the asteroid is reportedly moving at extremely fast speeds in the sky and has even set a record. The given asteroid was said to be about 5.7 to 13 meters large and was previously discovered by the official Mt. Lemmon survey back on October 21. This asteroid was able to reach its minimum distance from the Earth itself on October 22, 2020 at exactly 22:17 UTC.
The Virtual Telescope Project clarified that this particular asteroid holds "no risks" at any level for our planet. It was also said that even if the recent asteroid had in fact collided with Earth, it would only burn within the atmosphere at only 13 meters in size.
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NASA categorized the asteroid as an NEO
NASA also designated the said asteroid as a particular "Near Earth Object" otherwise known as NEO due to the fact that it achieved close proximity with the planet. NEOs contribute by allowing both NASA and other space agencies to be able to study the whole history of the solar system.
NASA stated that the known NEOs are actually comets and asteroids that have eventually been nudged by the huge gravitational attraction of the nearby planets into orbits that will allow them to be able to enter Earth's whole neighbourhood.
The whole scientific interest in both comets and asteroids are said to be largely due to their own status as the whole relatively unchanged remnant debris coming from the solar system formation process that happened some time 4.6 billion years in the past. The observation of NEOs allows astronauts to take a closer look at extraterrestrial material.
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Written by Urian Buenconsejo
