It will be one of the closest encounters ever recorded.
, and further observations of the object have enabled astronomers to chart out a better map of its trajectory. Much like the Earth, the asteroid also follows a roughly circular orbit around the Sun, which takes 359 days to complete.
The box truck-sized space rock is expected to come as close as 2,200 miles to the planet's surface, roughly a tenth of the distance that geostationary satellites orbit.With the asteroid coming so mighty close to the planet, astronomers were concerned if the Earth's gravity could pull it toward itself. This presents a risk to the planet, and NASA uses an impact hazard assessment system called Scout to determine how dangerous such an event would be.
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