Asteroid 2021 EQ3 will get closer than the moon.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
A particularly large asteroid will pass very close to Earth Monday evening and the encounter will be streamed live online.
The fly-by is completely safe and does not pose a risk to anything or anyone on Earth or our satellites. But asteroid 2021 EQ3 will get closer to Earth than our only natural satellite.
On average, aerial surveys and other telescopes see a space rock closer than the moon every few days. Most of these asteroids are only a few feet wide, making them probably no bigger than a bus.
However, the asteroid 2021 EQ3 can have a diameter of up to 38 meters, making it more like the size of a small apartment complex. That is also about the same size as the meteoroid that hit the atmosphere over Russia in 2013and created a shock wave that blew out thousands of windows in the city of Chelyabinsk below, injuring hundreds.
2021 EQ3 will pass closest above us Monday night at around 9:45 p.m. PT, at a distance of about 173,000 miles (278,000 kilometers) – that’s 72% of the distance from Earth to the moon.
You may have seen headlines about one #asteroid which will fly safely past Earth on March 21. Although this asteroid, known as 2001 FO32, is large, it will fly safely past Earth at a distance of 1.3 million miles – five times as far as the Moon – and pose no risk of hitting Earth. pic.twitter.com/oZZG5UaFsf
– NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 8, 2021
This makes 2021 EQ3 the second largest object closer to the Moon in 2021.
It is also different from 2001 FO32, that’s an absolute monster with a diameter of about a mile. That asteroid will pass on March 21, but at a distance five times farther than the moon.
The size of the asteroid also makes it a good object to track, and the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will stream an online watch party through its website.
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