(ORDO NEWS) — An asteroid called 138971 (2001 CB21) will fly relatively close to Earth next month. This was reported on February 2 by Newsweek, citing scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The diameter of the asteroid is estimated at about 1.3 km feet, which is four times the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The approximate date for the passage of asteroid 2001 CB21 near planet Earth is March 4, 3:00 am ET (11:00 Moscow time).
Its flight speed will be more than 43,130 km/h.
At the same time, scientists say that although the asteroid is classified by NASA’s Center for the Study of Near-Earth Objects (CNEOS) as “potentially dangerous”, it is unlikely to collide with our planet in the foreseeable future.
Although it is labeled a ‘close approach’ as it passes Earth next month, the asteroid will actually be more than three million miles away at its closest point, more than 10 times further away than the Moon.
The asteroid was first discovered on January 30 by Gianluca Masi, an astronomer from the Virtual Telescope project in Italy. He took a picture of CB21 in 2001 with a ground-based telescope when it was more than 34.6 million km from Earth.
Earlier, on January 19, the state corporation Roscosmos published footage of the passage of a potentially dangerous asteroid during its closest approach to the Earth.
Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) was photographed by the telescope of the Institute of Applied Mathematics (IPM) named after M.V. Keldysh RAS ORI-22 (Castelgrande, Italy). At 00:51 Moscow time on January 19, it passed at a distance of about 2 million km from the Earth. Roscosmos clarified that this is almost five times further than the moon.
The fact that the asteroid 1994 PC1 is approaching the Earth was reported at the IPM a day earlier. It was clarified that the asteroid was seen by the observer Sergei Shmalts using the ORI-22 telescope in Castelgrande in Italy on the night of January 17th.
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