NASA predicts that the truck-sized asteroid 2023 BU, discovered on January 21, will make one of the closest approaches ever recorded to a near-Earth object.
the asteroid will fly over the southern tip of South America around 00:27 UTC on January 27 at only 3,600 kilometers above the planet’s surface and well within the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, according to NASA calculations.
There is no risk of the asteroid hitting Earth. But even if it did, this small asteroid – between 3.5 and 8.5 meters in diameter – would turn into a fireball and disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere, although some of the larger debris could fall as small meteors.
The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, discoverer of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea, on Saturday, January 21.
Additional observations were reported to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) – the internationally recognized clearinghouse for position measurements of small celestial bodies – and the data was automatically published on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation page. Once enough observations were collected, the MPC announced the discovery. In three days, dozens of observations had been made by various observatories around the world, helping astronomers to better pinpoint the orbit of 2023 BU.
NASA’s Scout impact risk assessment system, maintained by the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), analyzed the data from the confirmation page of the MPC “and quickly predicted the near impact.” CNEOS calculates all known orbits of near-Earth asteroids to provide assessments of potential impact hazards in support of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO).
“The Scout quickly ruled out 2023 BU as an impactor, but despite the few observations, it was able to predict that the asteroid would come extremely close to Earth,” said Davide Farnocchia, a JPL navigation engineer who developed the Scout. “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches of a known near-Earth object ever recorded.”