Africa-Press – Rwanda. An asteroid the size of a truck is about to pass 2,200 miles above the surface of the Earth over the southern tip of South America without posing a threat to the planet, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced.
“On Thursday, a small near-Earth asteroid will have a very close encounter with our planet,” the release stated.
“Designated 2023 BU, the asteroid will zoom over the southern tip of South America at about 7:27 pm. EST only 2,200 miles [3,600 kilometers] above the planet’s surface and well within the orbit of geosynchronous satellites.”
Geosynchronous satellites orbit in fixed points 22,000 miles [36,000 kilometers] above the surface of the Earth, the release said. Asteroid 2023 BU is about the size of a box truck and is predicted to make one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded, the release said.
The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on January 21, according to the release.
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