The truth about Christmas hippos flying near Earth

The stone hippo nicknamed "Christmas Hippo" had the closest approach to Earth during 400 years and reached the astronomer's lens.

The lovely hippo is actually an asteroid named 2003 SD220 , which has repeatedly approached the Earth. According to NASA estimates, it reaches to . 1.6 km and will be a great disaster if the hippopotamus intends to land on any planet.

Hippo space is captured by NASA - (photo: NASA).

This year, it reached the closest distance during the last 400 years and dropped to Earth on Christmas so it was nicknamed "Christmas Hippo", or "Christmas Hippo".

Photo depicting the hippocampus's trajectory.

Code 2003 SD220 of a hippo asteroid is placed according to the year it was discovered (2003), at Anderson Mesa Station, an observatory in Arizona state (USA). The Christmas hippopotamus belongs to the Aten asteroid group, a group of asteroids with orbits close to Earth. The hippopotamus trajectory is 274 days.

In December 2021, the hippopotamus will stop to approach Earth again.

Looking from the Earth, the hippopotamus looks quite smooth but actually owns mountains up to 100m high. Through professional astronomical tubes, sparkling points can be seen, possibly reflections from rocks as well as clusters of dark spots, possibly craters or craters.

According to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), it is estimated that the hippopotamus closest to Earth on December 22 with a safe distance of 1.8 million miles.