Scientists: Earth close to a potentially dangerous asteroid – Tumix.ru

A unique flight in the vicinity of the Earth, according to the Institute of Astronomy, will see the people of the Urals, Siberia and Central Russia in the night from Saturday to Sunday. Potentially hazardous asteroid will approach the Earth tonight at a distance slightly larger than the moon, watching him can carry binoculars.

This Tass said researcher at the Institute of Applied Mathematics. Keldysh and member of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) Leonid Elenin. Other notable astronomical events of recent days – a meteorite that fell into Lake Baikal on October 22 drew a bright trace in the sky.

To find it impossible because of the small size. Meteorite mass less than 1 kg and a diameter of it was about 10 centimeters. In the next 30 years, a collision with Earth is not expected.

“The next time an asteroid TV145 will return to Earth November 11, 2018, but will take more than the approach of October 31 to 40 million kilometers,” – said the scientist Recalling 500 measurements made by astronomers after the asteroid was opened on 13 October by members of the American Observatory Pan Starrz (Pan-STARRS).

Elenin also noted that the date of the next, maybe closer encounters of the asteroid with the Earth has not yet been determined. But scientists hope that they can be set under the supervision of October 31st. At the moment we only know that “in the next 30 years, the asteroid hit the Earth”.

The asteroid will TB145 today from Earth at the closest distance at 20:14 MSK – only 486,000 km, that space standards “very close.” His brilliance reach 10th magnitude, and it will be visible in binoculars or a small amateur telescopes.

Today, in the evening and all night it can be seen in the constellation Ursa Major. The size of the asteroid is estimated to be 260-650 meters. The size and proximity to the passage by the Earth TV145 classified as potentially dangerous in terms of the collision. This list includes all the heavenly bodies with a diameter greater than one hundred meters and passing at a distance of 7.5 million kilometers from the planet.