Asteroid 2011MD will fly so close to Earth on Monday that residents of the Southern Hemisphere will be able to observe it with a telescope.
Scientists working within the LINEAR program noticed the asteroid, as reported by Discovery News, from a base in New Mexico.
The asteroid will pass within 12.000 kilometers of Earth, which is 32 times closer than the Moon.
"We are sure it will miss us, but even if it enters the atmosphere, an asteroid of that size will burn up and turn into a magnificent firework display and probably break up into several meteorites," asteroid expert Emily Baldwin told Skymania news.
The asteroid should be closest to Earth on Monday, around 13.30:XNUMX p.m., somewhere over the Atlantic. And even amateur astronomers from Australia and New Zealand will be able to see it when it is closest to our planet.
Pascal Tricarico, a researcher at the Institute of Planetary Sciences, created animations that show how close the asteroid will actually pass. Watch the animations here.
Bonus video:
