Asteroid is about to graze Earth

The location of celestial object 310442 (2000 CH59) will be closest to our planet after Christmas, NASA said.

Earth orbit and asteroid 2000 CH59.(Photo: Time Now News).

The Center for Near-Earth Object Research (CNEOS) of NASA estimates that the asteroid is nearly 620m in diameter, larger than the height of the Freedom Tower or World Trade Center 1 in New York, USA. Although described as "flying close to Earth" in astronomical terms, 2000 CH59 is in fact still far enough away from us so there is no need to worry, Paul Chodas, CNEOS Director, told Newsweek .

The asteroid calculated by astronomers will fly closest to Earth at 2:54 pm on December 26 in Hanoi time, about 7.2 million km from us. At that time, it moved at a speed of 44,300km per hour, 18 times faster than the F-16 jet.

Graphic asteroid simulation 2000 CH59.(Photo: Newsweek).

"Over the centuries and millennia, the paths of asteroids like 2000 CH59 could evolve into orbits that intersect with the Earth. Therefore, we need to continue monitoring them for decades to come." , Chodas emphasized.

CH59 is classified as "potentially dangerous" because of its large diameter and expected future orbit at a time only 0.05 astronomical units from the Earth (distance from Earth to the Sun). . The asteroid was first discovered on February 2, 2000, and astronomers have been tracking it since.

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