The asteroid will come within 4.6 million kilometers of Earth.
New Delhi:
An asteroid named 2024 BR4 will make an astonishingly close pass of Earth on Valentine’s Day this year. The asteroid, which is between 140 and 310 meters in diameter, roughly the size of a skyscraper, will come within 4.6 million kilometers of Earth, less than 12 times the distance of the moon.
The fast-moving space rock, discovered just a few weeks ago on January 30 by the Catalina Sky Survey, is part of the Apollo asteroid group, which is characterized by their orbits extending beyond Earth, unlike ours intersect.The most recent 120-second long-exposure image taken with a Celestron robotic unit is the world’s first Virtual telescope projectlet us have a glimpse of this interstellar traveler.
At the time of filming, 2024 BR4 was approximately 12 million kilometers away from the Earth and was steadily approaching. The Celestron C14+Paramount ME+SBIG ST8-XME robotic unit captured its journey in impressive detail, demonstrating the power of international collaborations such as the Virtual Telescope Project.
As the asteroid approaches its minimum distance of 4.6 million kilometers, about 12 times the average distance to the moon today, experts say there is no reason to panic. NASA closely tracks more than 33,000 near-Earth objects and says the risk of a major impact on Earth remains low in the foreseeable future.
