When will the asteroid fly past Earth tonight? Here’s how to watch 2023 BU live from the UK as it flies by

A small asteroid is expected to make one of the closest approaches to a near-Earth object in history, according to NASA.

It poses no danger, because even if it hit our planet directly, it would burn up in the atmosphere before impact.

The asteroid is expected to fly past the Earth in the early hours of Friday (January 26).

Here’s what you need to know.

When will the asteroid fly past Earth?

The asteroid known as 2023 BU is about the size of a van, according to NASA.

It will fly over the southernmost tip of South America around 00:27 Friday, just 3,600 km (2,200 miles) above the Earth’s surface.

NASA stated: “There is no risk of an asteroid colliding with Earth. But even if it did, this small asteroid, which is estimated to be between 3.5 and 8.5 meters wide, would have turned into a fireball and would have largely harmlessly broken up in the atmosphere, and some of the larger debris, perhaps they would have appeared when small meteorites fell. ”

The asteroid was spotted by amateur astronomer Gennady Boriso from his Margo Observatory in Nauchny, Crimea, on Saturday, January 21st.

NASA analyzed sightings of the asteroid and determined that it would miss Earth after using the reconnaissance impact assessment system.

“Scout quickly ruled out 2023 BU as an impactor, but despite very few observations, was able to predict that the asteroid would make an unusually close approach to Earth,” said Davide Farnoccia, JPL navigation engineer who developed Scout. . “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches to a known near-Earth object.”

What is the probability of an asteroid colliding with Earth?

Small objects often collide with the Earth, many of which are so small that no one notices them because they burn up when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

The larger the object, the less likely it is to hit.

The researchers found that asteroids with a diameter of 1 km fall to Earth on average every 500,000 years.

Major collisions with objects at a distance of 5 km occur approximately every 20 million years.

The last known impact with an object 10 km or more in diameter was the asteroid Chicxulub, which killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

The asteroid Bennu, 525 meters in diameter, is said to have the greatest chance of colliding with Earth. A study published last year gave it a 1 in 1,750 chance of colliding in the next three centuries.