Asteroid Fly-By Set for Tuesday Night
An asteroid discovered only last year readies to pass a hair's distance from Earth
Make sure you don’t miss this one. Asteroid 2007 TU24 will be as close to Earth as it has been in 2,000 years, and it won’t get any closer in this century. With a diameter of around 800 feet, the space rock is large enough to cause some serious damage if it was ever to strike our pale blue dot, but astronomers say that is not a possibility.
The rock was first discovered late last year. NASA scientists have since captured radar images that enabled them to estimate its size and shape, but they’ll be training more precise instruments on the rock this week. Tomorrow night, at around 3:33 AM Eastern time, it will be within 334,000 miles of Earth–not much farther away than our own Moon. So set your alarm, make some coffee, and call A.J. Frost if it looks like it’s getting too close.
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