Over 30 “Potentially Hazardous” Asteroids Will Approach Earth in 2023
Written by Reananda Hidayat PermonoCompleted Master of Science - MS, Petroleum Geology from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
A cruise ship-sized asteroid, with an estimated diameter of between 460 and 1,050 feet, will make its closest approach to Earth in 2023.
However, “close” in universe terms is not that close; it’s still hundreds of thousands of miles away.
The asteroid 1998 HH49 is estimated to come within 730,000 miles of Earth.
That’s about three times the distance between the moon and the Earth.
NASA predicted that the asteroid won’t be as close to Earth again until 2163, but it would come within 400,000 miles that year.
Asteroid 1998 HH49 approached Earth in 2021, but it was more than 40,000,000 miles away.
The director of the UK’s Spaceguard Center, Jay Tate, explained that asteroids orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
However, asteroids can be disturbed easily since they are relatively small.
The orbit of an asteroid can also be changed due to the gravitational energy of other planets.
Therefore, asteroids can move into the inner solar system and are described as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).
Researchers classify them as “potentially hazardous” objects if they have a diameter size of over 460 feet and come within 4.6 million miles of Earth’s orbit.
NASA has identified more than 30 “potentially hazardous” asteroids that will approach Earth in the coming year, including the asteroid 1998 HH49.