Astronomers confirm that the “potentially hazardous” asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth this Friday (April 1).
Large meteoroids that orbit within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth’s solar orbit are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids.
However, astronomers state that this massive cosmic rock will be approximately 7.4 million kilometers away from us.
The asteroid is classified as potentially hazardous.
According to SpaceReference.com, the asteroid, known as 2007 FF1, has a diameter ranging from 110 to 260 meters. The 2007 FF1 meteoroid is recognized as an Apollo-class asteroid, of which there are about 15,000, meaning its orbit around the sun (taking 684 days) intersects with Earth’s orbit. The asteroid is classified as potentially hazardous due to its size and relatively close orbit to Earth.
A blurry image of the space rock moving towards us was captured by the Virtual Telescope Project on March 24, when the asteroid was about 11.6 million kilometers away from Earth. This serves as the first evidence confirming that the asteroid will fly past Earth as predicted by previous models.
The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 4:35 PM ET, when it will be about 4.6 million miles away. For reference, the average distance between Earth and the moon is approximately 384,400 kilometers, according to NASA, making the asteroid more than 30 times farther from Earth than the moon.
This upcoming flyby is the closest approach that 2007 FF1 has made since its discovery in March 2007. In August 2020, this asteroid reached a minimum distance to Earth of about 17.3 million kilometers while traveling at a speed of approximately 47,950 km/h, according to SpaceReference.org. The next closest approach is estimated to occur on April 2, 2037, when it will reach a minimum distance to Earth of about 7.9 million kilometers.
