Scientists estimate that the asteroid is between 1,300 and 2,230 feet wide.
The near-Earth asteroid, known as 2001 FO32, will be 1.25 million miles, or more than five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, on its closest approach.
It will also move much faster than most asteroids flying past our planet, traveling at 77,000 miles per hour.
The closest approach to the asteroid will occur at 12:03 p.m. ET on Sunday.
“There is no threat of a collision with our planet now or in the coming centuries,” said a NASA report.
“We know very accurately the 2001 FO32 orbit path around the sun since it was discovered 20 years ago and has been tracked ever since,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, in a statement. “There is no chance that the asteroid will get closer to Earth than 1.25 million miles.”
The center is operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Although FO32 from 2001 is not close enough to cause any danger, given its proximity it is still considered a potentially dangerous asteroid. The Center for Near Earth Object Studies tracks and predicts orbits for such objects, using telescopes and radar to determine if they have a chance of impacting Earth.
This asteroid moves faster than others because of its oblique and elongated orbit around the sun. This orbit brings the asteroid closer to the sun than Mercury, the planet closest to the star in our solar system, and twice as far as Mars, the fourth planet from the sun.
As 2001 FO32 approaches the inner solar system, it accelerates. Once it’s kicked back into deep space, it will slow down. The asteroid will take 810 days to complete orbit, but the next pass along Earth won’t happen again until 2052.
If you have a telescope, you may be able to see the asteroid pass by, depending on where you live.
“The asteroid will be brightest as it moves across the southern sky,” Chodas said. “Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere and low northern latitudes should be able to see this asteroid using medium-sized telescopes with at least 20 cm apertures in the nights leading up to the closest approach, but they will likely need star charts to find it.”
Observational possibility
A short pass is a great opportunity for scientists to observe this remnant of the formation of the solar system. During the flyby, they can fine-tune details of the asteroid’s size and composition. The bureau’s infrared telescope facility on Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii is one of the telescopes that will be used to observe the asteroid.
“We’re trying to do geology with a telescope,” Vishnu Reddy, associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said in a statement. “We’re going to use the (telescope) to show the infrared spectrum its chemical composition. Once we know that, we can make comparisons to Earth’s meteorites to find out which minerals 2001 contains FO32.”
Learning the asteroid’s composition would reveal more about its history.
Three ground radio dishes in California, Australia and Spain, which make up the Deep Space Network, can be used to essentially reflect radio signals from the asteroid. These can provide radar observations, such as whether the asteroid has its own moon.
“Observations going back 20 years showed that about 15% of near-Earth asteroids comparable in size to 2001’s FO32 have a small moon,” Lance Benner, JPL chief scientist, said in a statement. “Little is currently known about this object, so the very close encounter provides an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid.”