2024 BJ will go by Earth — harmlessly — at 12:29 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 27.
A rendering of 2024 BJ from NASA’s asteroid watch. Credit score: NASA/JPL
A recently-discovered asteroid named 2024 BJ will go by Earth — harmlessly — at 12:29 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 27.
2024 BJ will come inside some 220,000 miles (354,000 kilometers) of Earth, nearer than the typical distance between the Moon and Earth.
Nonetheless, the asteroid won’t be seen to the bare eye. It’s too small. At an estimated 72 toes (22 meters), it’s in regards to the measurement of two phone poles stacked finish to finish. At a magnitude of 15.5 at its brightest, the asteroid will probably be about as brilliant as Pluto is within the sky. Solely bigger telescopes will catch 2024 BJ’s journey close to Earth because it speeds by at round 58,000 miles (93,300 km) per hour.
Nonetheless, if you wish to see the asteroid, The Virtual Telescope Project will livestream the shut encounter beginning at 17:00 UTC (midday EST).
Apollo Asteroids
The asteroid is taken into account an Apollo asteroid, that are asteroids who come nearer to the Solar than 1.017 astronomical models. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the typical Earth-Solar distance.) These objects cross Earth’s orbit and, if giant sufficient, could be thought-about probably hazardous asteroids. Nevertheless, 2024 BJ4 shouldn’t be harmful to Earth.
The following time 2024 BJ will swing close to to our planet is over a decade away, on March 31, 2034. This encounter received’t be practically as shut, although, at a distance of about 23 million miles (37.5 million km).
