The asteroid, named 2015 FF, has an estimated diameter of between 13 and 28 meters, roughly the length of an adult blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), and will pass by Earth at a speed of 33,012 km/h.
At its closest approach, the asteroid—traveling at a speed 27 times that of sound—will come within approximately 4.3 million kilometers of Earth, which is over eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon. By cosmic standards, this is a small margin.
This asteroid will pass by Earth at a speed of 33,012 km/h. (Illustrative image).
NASA flags any space object that comes within 193 million kilometers of Earth as a “near-Earth object”, and any fast-moving object within 7.5 million kilometers is classified as “potentially hazardous”.
Once objects are flagged, astronomers closely monitor them, looking for any deviations from their predicted orbits—such as a sudden collision with another asteroid—that could lead to a catastrophic impact with Earth.
NASA has mapped the positions and orbits of about 28,000 asteroids using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS)—a series of four telescopes capable of scanning the entire night sky once every 24 hours.
Since ATLAS became operational in 2017, it has detected over 700 near-Earth asteroids and 66 comets. Two of the asteroids discovered by ATLAS, 2019 MO and 2018 LA, actually impacted Earth, with one exploding off the southern coast of Puerto Rico and the other landing near the border of Botswana and South Africa. Fortunately, these asteroids were small and caused no damage.
NASA has estimated the orbits of all near-Earth objects by the end of this century, and the good news is that Earth is not facing any threats from an asteroid impact for at least the next 100 years, according to NASA.
However, this does not mean that space watchers think they should stop their work. There is still a significant history of devastating asteroid impacts that shows the need for continued vigilance.
For instance, in March 2021, a meteor the size of a bowling ball exploded over Vermont with a force equivalent to 200 kg of TNT. However, this event is unrelated to the most recent meteor explosion, which occurred near the city of Chelyabinsk in central Russia in 2013.
When the Chelyabinsk meteor entered the atmosphere, it created an explosion equivalent to about 400 to 500 kilotons of TNT, or 26 to 33 times the energy released by the Hiroshima bomb. Fireballs rained down on the city and surrounding areas, damaging buildings, shattering windows, and injuring around 1,200 people.
