Asteroid 7335 LIVE — NASA says ‘potentially hazardous’ mile-wide space rock to make ‘close approach’ to Earth TODAY

What is considered a ‘close approach’?

If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles of Earth and is over a certain size, it is considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.

The asteroid should shoot past from its safe distance at a speed of just under 19,000 miles per hour today.

Can people look up and see the asteroid?

The Asteroid isn’t large or close enough to view with the naked eye.

However, it may be seen with a suitable telescope or an app like Stellarium, CNET reports.

Asteroid likely passing now

Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA was expected to fly by on Friday at 10.26am EST.

That means it’s likely passing now, already passed, or will be flying by our planet very soon.

How close will the asteroid get?

The space rock named 7335 (1989 JA) will soar within 2.5million miles of Earth at 29,000mph on May 27, according to Nasa.

Though it’s classified as “potentially hazardous” because it’ll come within 4.65 million miles of Earth, Asteroid 7335 does not pose any immediate threat to our planet.

What is a NEO?

Nasa considers anything passing near Earth’s orbit a Near-Earth Object (NEO).

Thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet.

What distance will the asteroid pass us?

Asteroid 7335 will pass us at a distance of about 2.5million miles.

What is the temperature of an asteroid?

According to Space.com, the average temperature of an asteroid’s surface is minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Live on two feeds

On its website, the VTP wrote, “We will show it live from Chile and Australia.”

The Chilean feed began at midnight UK time on May 27 (which was 7pm EST on May 26) and the Australian stream will begin at 2pm UK time (9am EST) on May 27.

How to see Asteroid 7335

The Asteroid isn’t large or close enough to view with the naked eye, but it may be seen with a suitable telescope or an app like Stellarium, CNET reports.

However, if you don’t have the equipment to do so, the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy will be hosting an online viewing party, which can be accessed on their YouTube channel.

When to expect Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA to pass

The space object is expected to fly by on Friday at 10.26am EST.

Budding astronomers were able to try to spot the asteroid a couple of days before with a backyard telescope, according to Earth Sky.

How to watch the asteroid pass

The asteroid is expected to fly by Earth very soon.

You can watch the celestial event on the Virtual Telescope Project’s live stream, which started on Thursday evening.

Types of asteroids: M-types

The M-type asteroids (nickel-iron) are made of metal. The compositional variations between asteroids are linked to how distant they originated from the Sun.

After they formed and partially melted, some endured tremendous temperatures, with iron sinking to the center and driving basaltic (volcanic) lava to the surface.

Types of asteroids: S-types

S-type (stony) asteroids are made up of nickel-iron silicate minerals.

Types of asteroids: C-Type

C-Type (chondrite) are the most common asteroids. They are most likely made up of clay and silicate rocks and have a black look. They are among the solar system’s oldest ancient things.

Giant asteroids could be spotted early

Giant asteroids that could potentially endanger the Earth can be spotted thanks to a special system.

The Scout monitoring system, a small piece of technology the size of a shoebox, may be able to save the earth from catastrophic disasters.

Using new “Scout” monitoring technologies, scientists were able to spot an asteroid heading toward earth on March 11, and accurately predict its patterns.

Humans have flown by, landed on asteroids

According to NASA, more than 10 spacecrafts have completed at least one of these feats. Phys.org reports on some:

NEAR Shoemaker landed on 433 Eros in 2001 and lasted for weeks despite not being meant to do so.

In 2011 and 2012, NASA’s Dawn probe spent months circling Vesta, the second-largest asteroid in the belt.

In 2010, Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft returned to Earth with samples of the asteroid Itokawa that it had captured in 2005.

Asteroid composition revealed

In general, the composition of an asteroid is dictated by its distance from the Sun. The pressure and heat from our neighboring star tends to melt adjacent ice and blast away lighter components.

Asteroids come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but there are three basic types:

• Dark C (carbonaceous)
• Bright S (slicaceous)
• Bright M (metallic)

The solar system’s origins explained

According to LiveScience, scientists believe the solar system began when a nearby exploding star, known as a supernova, caused the solar nebula to collapse.

The explosion, according to this idea, produced shock waves through space, which pushed portions of the nebula closer together, causing it to collapse.

The explosion may have even seeded material into the nebula.

Per Space.com, scientists discovered that aluminum-26, an element found exclusively in the hearts of stars, most likely came from a sequence of nearby supernovas.

Dust cloud forms due to colliding asteroids

The catastrophic scene left behind by a cosmic collision was discovered by data from a decommissioned NASA satellite telescope, according to space.com.

The magnitude of a debris cloud observed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows that the dust was produced when two dwarf planet-sized particles collided a few hundred light-years away.

Meteoroids become meteorites

If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vaporize and becomes a meteor.

On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up, and it may look like a fireball or “shooting star.”

If a meteoroid doesn’t vaporize completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, however, it can land on Earth and becomes a meteorite.

Comets orbit the Sun

Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun.

However, rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them as a result of the ice and dust vaporizing.

“They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet,” Nasa reported.

Meteoroids are commonly referred to as ‘space rocks’

When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids.

“Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as ‘space rocks,’” Nasa reported.

Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets

An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun.

They are “rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago,” Nasa reveals.

Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter).

But they can be found anywhere, including in a path that can impact Earth.

How are asteroids found?

Giuseppe Piazzi, an Italian priest and astronomer, accidentally found Ceres, the first and biggest asteroid, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, while drawing a star map in 1801.

Ceres, while being categorized as a dwarf planet today, is responsible for a quarter of the mass of all known asteroids in or around the main asteroid belt.

NASA has been leading a program to find and track near-Earth asteroids since around 2000.

According to CNEOS, programs like the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona and the Pan-STARRS telescopes in Hawaii specialize in locating asteroids and have identified hundreds of them.

Where are asteroids found?

Asteroids are found mostly in three areas of the solar system.

The majority of asteroids are found in a large ring between Mars and Jupiter’s orbits.

More than 200 asteroids bigger than 60 miles (100 kilometers) in diameter are found in this primary asteroid belt.

According to NASA, the asteroid belt includes between 1.1million and 1.9million asteroids bigger than one kilometer (3,281 feet) in diameter, as well as millions of smaller ones.