A plane flies at 575 miles per hour, which is pretty fast. The International Space Station flies at 17,100 miles per hour, which is very fast. And asteroid 2001 FO32 is about to fly past Earth at 76,980 miles per hour, which is unimaginably fast. We're talking 100 times the speed of sound.
The asteroid will likely be the largest and fastest near-Earth object to zoom by our planet this year, doing so on March 23 at 16:03 UTC (11:03 a.m. EST). Scientists estimate that it's between about half a mile and one mile in diameter, making it larger than approximately 97% of other known asteroids .
While you're here, how about this:
NASA On The Cusp With $967 Million Mission To Weird 'Psyche' Asteroid Worth 75,000 Times Our
This artist's concept depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in ... [+] the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche is the focal point of NASA's mission of the same name. The Psyche spacecraft is set to launch in August 2022 and arrive at the asteroid in 2026, where it will orbit for 21 months and investigate its composition.
Due to leave Earth in 18 months, the spacecraft's science instruments and engineering systems have been passed and are now ready to test, assemble, and integrate—something described by its principal investigator as "near-miraculous" given the pandemic.
Japan scientists to study source of high heat on asteroid
About 3 grams (0.1 ounce) of the black granules are from Ryugu's surface and were gathered when Hayabusa2 touched down on the asteroid in April 2019. About 2 grams of larger fragments, up to about 1 centimeter (0.4 inch), were obtained from under the surface in a crater made by Hayabusa2 when it landed a second time three months later.
Based on near-infrared spectrophotometer analysis of data transmitted by Hayabusa2, JAXA scientists found that the asteroid was exposed to extremely high temperatures both on its surface and underground, possibly caused by an internal source of heat or planetary collisions rather than heat from the sun.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Plans for May Asteroid Departure | NASA
And here's another article:
Largest known asteroid to fly past Earth in 2021: All you need to know about the March 21 event -
Asteroid fly-by: The largest asteroid to fly past the Earth this year is set to make a close approach to our planet on March 21. Known as 2001 FO32, the asteroid is an enormous rock which is classified as a near-Earth object (NEO) and it is orbiting the Sun in close proximity to the Earth. NEOs are those celestial objects that are on a path which can potentially take them within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit around the Sun.
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As per NASA, potentially hazardous NEOs are those which have a diameter larger than 460 feet and have orbits approaching the Earth's orbit to within 4.6 million miles. These NEOs are classified as potentially hazardous because they have orbits that come close to that of the Earth.
NASA's Psyche Mission to Explore a Metal-Rich Asteroid Passes Key Milestone
Technicians power on the main body of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, called the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, in November 2020. Credit: Maxar Technologies
Now just a year and a half from launch, the mission to explore a metal-rich asteroid will soon begin assembling and testing the spacecraft.
Until now, the mission has focused on planning, designing, and building the body of the spacecraft, its solar-electric propulsion system, the three science instruments, electronics, the power subsystem, and the like. The successful review of those elements means the mission can now begin delivering components to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission and will test, assemble, and integrate each piece.
Sci-fi Saturday: An Asteroid Lingers Near Earth and Devours Time | Mind Matters
No spoilers but the little girl is very cute and the aging scenes and high tech memory retrieval devices are well done. The mockup of a CNN-like panel of well-meaning but useless experts, dealing with the time warp created by the asteroid, is among the best scenes.
One awkwardness: I am unclear exactly what happened to the little girl. But you will need to watch the film to see what I mean. Obviously, a filmmaker can't just "explain" things but that's not a justification for needless obscurity. Overall, an interesting look at what happens when time flies much faster than perception.
Giant and 'potentially hazardous asteroid' to zoom past Earth in March
A ‘potentially hazardous asteroid’ is all set to zoom past Earth on March 21, 2021. Unlike many other celestial objects which sweep past our planet, this one is potentially hazardous as it’s the largest and the fastest asteroid which will pass by Earth in 2021. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the asteroid named ‘2001 FO32’ would move an incredibly high speed and would not be visible by the naked eye.
As reported by earthsky , the asteroid which will be moving at a speed of 21 miles (34.4 km) per second will pass by the earth at 9:33 pm EST. Even at its closest distance, the almost one-kilometre long asteroid would be about 1.3 million miles (2,016,351 km) or 5 lunar distances away. NASA has termed the event as safe nixing any possible chance of collision.
Happening on Twitter
But I think it's important for everyone to know that the asteroid that ended the age of the dinosaurs did not strea… https://t.co/y6cJU8pZLK hankgreen (from Missoula, MT) Fri Feb 05 05:06:19 +0000 2021
Massive asteroid the size of Chrysler Building to pass earth today https://t.co/BOtR2zueC6 Newsweek (from New York, NY) Mon Feb 01 15:43:21 +0000 2021
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