Astronomers have confirmed that a "potentially hazardous" asteroid is set to make its closest-ever approach to Earth this Friday (April 1). However, there is no need to panic; astronomers say the massive space rock will miss us by around 4.6 million miles (7.4 million kilometers).
The asteroid, known as 2007 FF1, is between 360
feet and 656 feet (110 and 260 meters) in diameter, according to SpaceReference.com,
a database that compiles information from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
California and the International Astronomical Union. The rock 2007 FF1 is known
as an Apollo-class asteroid, of which there are around 15,000, meaning that its
orbit around the sun (which takes 684 days) crosses with Earth's orbit. The
asteroid is classified as potentially hazardous because of its size and
relatively close orbit to Earth.
A blurry photo of the space rock hurtling in
our direction was captured by the Virtual Telescope Project on March 24, when the
asteroid was around 7.2 million miles (11.6 million km) from Earth. This is the
first evidence that confirms the asteroid will make its flyby of Earth as
predicted by past models.
The asteroid will make its closest approach to
Earth at 4:35 p.m. ET, when it will be around 4.6million miles away. For
reference, the average distance between Earth and the moon is around
238,855 miles (384,400 km), according to NASA, which will make
the asteroid around 30 times farther away than the moon is from Earth when it
arrives.
The upcoming flyby is the closest approach to
Earth that 2007 FF1 has made since it was discovered in March 2007. In August
2020, the asteroid reached a minimum distance to Earth of around 10.8 million
miles (17.3 million km) and was traveling at around 29,800 mph (47,950 km/h),
according to SpaceReference.org. The next closest approach is estimated to take
place on April 2, 2037, when it will reach a minimum distance to Earth of
around 4.9 million miles (7.9 million km).