Astronomers showed an image of a huge near-Earth asteroid

(ORDO NEWS) — Near-Earth asteroid 2016 AJ193 flew past our planet at a fairly close distance, but, according to experts, it posed absolutely no threat. The object was discovered using equipment from the Goldstone Observatory, which is located in California. The diameter of the asteroid is almost 1.4 kilometers, and its speed exceeded 94 thousand kilometers per hour.

Reported by earthsky.org.

This space object has already become the 1001st asteroid of the near-Earth type since the time they were first recorded by specialists in 1968. The very first such asteroid was 1566 Icarus. Scientists managed to record a radar echo and then look at the space object. Astronomer Shantanu Naidu noted that this option for observing 2016 AJ193 has been planned by experts for quite a long time.

The asteroid has a cometary orbit and may well be an inactive comet. To date, there is practically no information about the object. Experts only know its size and the approximate amount of sunlight that is reflected by the surface.

Scientists note that near-Earth asteroids can pose a fairly serious threat to our planet, so they must be carefully studied, as well as to establish accurate orbits.

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