Asteroid 2023 BU passed near Earth. It was discovered by an amateur astronomer

Gennady Borisov sees the sky as a hobby. on Saturday Jan 21 He indulged in this passion at the Margot Observatory in the Crimea, when he suddenly noticed a large scorpion an asteroidapproaching the ground. The amateur astronomer immediately notified international institutions that measure the location of small celestial bodies of his discovery. I also became interested in him NASA.

NASA: Asteroid 2023 BU passed near Earth

“There is no danger of an asteroid hitting Earth” – Scholars’ assessment With NASA. In addition, they estimated that the asteroid was between 3.5 and 8.5 meters in diameter, according to them. About MeEven if they were wrong and hit the ground it would ‘roll into a ball’ fire, Which will largely disintegrate in the atmosphere, with some large pieces possibly falling off as smithereens meteorites“.

In the end, NASA was right. The asteroid – dubbed 2023 BU – passed Earth Thursday night through Friday Polish time. At one point there were only 3,600 kilometers above the surface of the planet. a. Don Polacco of the University of Warwick BBC interview He explained that the asteroid passed our planet only 1 percent. Distance: after lowest Moon.

“In fact, this is one of the closest asteroid approaches to Earth ever recorded,” said David Farnocchia, the engineer who developed Scout, NASA’s collision risk assessment system.

More information from Poland can be found at Gazeta.pl home page

Earth’s gravity affected the asteroid’s orbit

a. “The asteroid must have passed Earth thousands of times before,” Don Polacco explained. In contrast, NASA explained that 2023 BU got so close that the trajectory of its orbit around it changed the sun

“Before the encounter with the Earth, the asteroid’s orbit around the sun was nearly circular, similar to Earth’s orbit, and it took 359 days to complete a revolution around the sun. After the encounter, the asteroid’s orbit will be more elongated, and it will move to about halfway between Earth’s and Earth’s orbits. Mars at its farthest point from the sun. After that, the asteroid completes one orbit every 425 days.