Small Asteroid Will Fly Near Earth At A Formidable Speed

According to NASA, another Apollo-type asteroid will zip the Earth’s surface at the fantastic speed of more than 45,000 mph. The space rock skimmed our planet surface back in 1959, and now, it will revisit us next week. The asteroid dubbed 2020 BJ7 orbits the sun once every 1.9 years and will zoom passed Earth almost as close as the moon.

The space rock will pass near Earth today

The 2020 BJ7 astronomical body is quite small in size, measuring no more than 49 feet in diameter. The fun fact about this space rock is that it was detected two days ago. Making an analogy, it is similar to the Chelyabinsk meteorite, only a little bit smaller in size. Chelyabinsk meteor entered our planet atmosphere about seven years ago.

Looking back at the damage the Chelyabinsk made in Russia back in 2013, on February 15, makes us think that 2020 BJ7 could pose a threat. Sadly, 7,200 buildings were destroyed in Russia, and nearly 1,500 people were injured. However, the small 2020 BJ7 asteroid does not represent a threat, as it will only skim by our planet and then orbit the sun. Thankfully, it won’t cause any devastating destruction.

The small 2020 BJ7 asteroid will pass at a safe distance

As reported by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the tiny space rock will get close to Earth just before sunup hours of January 28. The asteroid will fly by our planet surface at only 288,300 miles away, which means by 1.24 lunar distance. The moon is about 238,900 miles away from Earth, and it will reach by it the next morning.

This asteroid is not the only astronomical body visiting the planet’s surface. Just a few days ago, another tiny space rock zipped the Earth-Moon system on Saturday. The asteroid dubbed 2020 BH6 zipped the Earth at the 0.28 times lunar distance and at only 0.18 times the distance to the Moon.