The network of remotely operated telescopes The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 captured the asteroid, named 2023 BU, when he was preparing to fly over the Earth over South America, this January 27.
This newly discovered asteroid and about the size of a truck, was expected to make one of the closest approaches to Earth ever recorded.
The telescope tracked the apparent very fast motion of the asteroid; this is the reason why the stars look like long trails while the asteroid is a bright and sharp point of light, this network reports in a statement.
“At the time the images were taken, the asteroid -between 3.5 and 8.5 meters in diameter- was about 37,000 kilometers from us, much closer than geostationary satellites, and it was still getting closer to our planet. The minimum distance was reached on January 27 at 00:29 UTC, 3,600 kilometers according to NASA’s prediction”, making it the fourth closest asteroid in history (excluding the five discovered just before its impact).
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.
NASA had reported that it would approach the southern tip of South America at around 4:27 p.m.
nothing dangerous
NASA administrator Clarence William “Bill” Nelson II had reported that they have dedicated teams watching the skies to make sure planet earth is safe from dangerous asteroids.
“Today’s (Thursday) asteroid flyby is one of the closest ever recorded, but our Planetary Defense experts have been tracking the asteroid and they know that it is not a threat to the Earth”, wrote Bill Nelson through his Twitter account last Thursday.
NASA had explained that the small asteroid, estimated to be 11.5 to 28 feet (3.5 to 8.5 m) across, was not at risk of impacting Earth. “Even if it did, it would become a fireball and disintegrate largely harmlessly in the atmosphere, and some of the larger debris could fall as small meteors,” he said.
At @NASA we have dedicated teams who watch the skies to make sure we are safe from hazardous asteroids.
Today’s asteroid flyby is one of the closest ever recorded, but our #PlanetaryDefense experts have been tracking the asteroid and know it’s not a threat to Earth. https://t.co/gOaR6ZNg4Z
— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) January 26, 2023