A potentially dangerous asteroid that, due to its enormous size, has its own moon, will pass by the Earth tonight around 21:XNUMX p.m.
In the attached video, the trajectory of the asteroid is marked with a yellow line.
The asteroid is called 1999 KW4 and it will pass by our planet at a distance of about five million kilometers, which is extremely close. It moves at a speed of 48.000 kilometers per hour and its largest diameter is as much as 1,5 kilometers, writes Klix.ba.
It was discovered two decades ago, its revolution around the Sun lasts 188 days, and the "beaten path" always passes between the orbits of Venus and Earth. It is interesting that a smaller asteroid-moon with a diameter of 500 meters orbits it.
Because of its size and trajectory, astronomers consider it "potentially dangerous". At the time of closest approach to Earth, 1999 KW4 will be at a distance that can be expressed as 13 Earth-Moon distances.
Unfortunately, the asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, but astronomers will be able to observe it with powerful telescopes.
The next similar encounter with such a large asteroid is not expected before 2027.
Bonus video:
