On the evening of Monday, March 14, an asteroid will graze Earth. For comparison, asteroid 2022 ES3 is 13 meters long, about the size of a bus or twice the size of a giraffe.
At about 7:30 pm French time, asteroid 2022 ES3 should pass 7 million kilometers from our planet. A distance that is about 19 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. While that doesn’t look at all close at all on a human level, things are quite different when viewed from space. For scientists, this distance is already very close, explains in particular the specialized site Space.com.
2022 ES3 was first observed on March 7 by Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA. The foundation then shared all the information it could get on the subject in open access.
If observations are made in very precise ways, sometimes they are made too late and the object, asteroid or other, is attacking us with discretion. This was also the case for another asteroid in November 2021.
A phenomenon that can be watched live
But this time, all space lovers or simply curious can follow 2022 ES3 live. The virtual telescope projecta community that brings together thousands of enthusiasts, has opened a dedicated YouTube page.
It remains only to hope that the clouds are not too present to be able to admire the sight. Finally, if some asteroids can cause significant damage if they collide with Earth, this is not the case with 2022 ES3 which has not been classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid. The reason is that there is not enough diameter to be.
NASA considers a space rock dangerous if its diameter is equal to or greater than 150 meters and if its orbit takes it less than 7.4 million kilometers from Earth. Let the distance be approximately 19.5 times the distance to the Moon.
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