While it is much smaller (ten times less) than the one that caused the extinction of dinosaurs, 2025 FA22 is the size of a skyscraper and, according to the European Space Agency, it is “potentially dangerous”, He will approach the earth this week. And the interesting thing is that we can see it pass at full speed, either with a telescope or through a live online transmission.
Initially, it was predicted that this asteroid, discovered earlier this year, would have the possibility of impacting our planet in 2089, which earned him temporarily A position on the impact risk list of the European Space Agency (ESA). However, after new observations, it is no longer considered an imminent threat.
2025 FA22, measures between 130 and 290 meters in diameterwhich makes it large enough to destroy a big city if it collided with the earth. It will reach its minimum distance to us in the early hours of Thursday (September 18), approaching 835,000 kilometers from our planet (little more than double distance than the moon) and will travel about 38,600 km/h.
Discovered by the Pan-Starrs 2 telescope in Hawaii. The asteroid quickly monopolized the owners when revealed that It has a 0.01 % probability of impacting with the earth when it returns on September 23, 2089.
Despite the low collision probabilities, the space agencies took seriously the threat of 2025 FA22, and The asteroid briefly passed to the first position of the ESA Risk Listwhich monitors all objects close to Earth with a non -void probability of impacting our planet.
“However, high priority monitoring observations They soon allowed astronomers to refine the asteroid trajectory and discard any impact risk, “according to a statement from ESA.
The overflow, now totally safe, of 2025 FA22 will be shared through the virtual telescope project, which will track the object using a telescope in many, Italy. The transmission will begin around 05:00 in the morning of Thursday.
During its approximation, the asteroid could reach an apparent magnitude of 13, which I would do it bright enough to be detected with a good domestic telescope or binoculars.
Scientists will closely follow the asteroid from observatories around the world, including NASA’s Goldstone Radar Telescope in Barstow, California, which It can reveal more about the real size and shape of the space rock.
Meanwhile, the International Asteroid Alert Network (IAWN) will also take advantage of the 2025 FA22 overflow to practice Its emergency protocols through a test scenario under the assumption that the asteroid will impact us in 2089. This drill, called the 2025 FA22 IAWN campaign, will consist of measuring so many asteroid characteristics with the greatest possible precision, in preparation for a hypothetical mission to divert the space rock in the future.
“While 2025 FA22 does not represent any danger, It is important to practice our ability to measure these propertiessince they influence how an asteroid will react to any attempt to divert it from its collision trajectory with the earth, ”concludes ESA.