(NewsGlobal.com)- Of all near-Earth objects, an asteroid the size of a box truck came the closest to the planet in recorded history last week, according to Newsmax. At the time, NASA reportedly said that the asteroid, called 2023 BU, was expected to reach the southern tip of South America which sits just 2,200 miles from the planet’s surface and within the geosynchronous satellites’ orbits.
In a press release, NASA reassured the public that the asteroid, estimated to be 11.5 feet by 28 feet, would not hit Earth, but would have a small impact even if it did because it “would turn into a fireball and largely disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere, with some of the bigger debris potentially falling as small meteorites.”
While NASA’s Scout impact hazard assessment ruled the asteroid out as an impactor, it predicted that it would make the closest encounter with Earth ever recorded, according to Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and developer of the Scout system.
The proximity to Earth will reportedly change the trajectory of the asteroid, NASA stated. Its 359-day orbit around the sun, which was roughly circular and similar to that of Earth’s, will now become more “elongated” and take 425 days because of the planet’s gravitational pull.
The asteroid was reportedly discovered in Nauchnyi, Crimea by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov from his MARGO observatory on January 21.
Last summer, NASA warned that solar flares could begin to cause problems on Earth, impacting GPS signals, power grids, satellite electronics, and radio communication. Solar eruptions, according to NASA’s website, are giant explosions from the sun that emit energy, light, and high-speed particles into space.
“Solar events will continue to increase as we near solar maximum in 2025, and our lives and technology on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space, will be impacted,” said Nicola Fox, rector of NASA’s Heliophysics Division.
