Asteroid 2023 BU

On January 27, 2023, a box truck-sized asteroid is anticipated to come quite close to Earth. According to NASA, the asteroid 2023 BU will fly by Earth at a distance of 3,600 kilometres above the surface of the planet, which could be one of the closest passes by a near-Earth object ever noted.

When will asteroid 2023 BU come in contact with the Earth up close?

At around 7:27 p.m. EST on January 26 (5:57 a.m. IST on January 27), the asteroid 2023 BU will fly directly over the southernmost point of South America, well within the geosynchronous satellites’ orbit.

The asteroid may strike Earth.

The asteroid won’t strike Earth, though. The asteroid would become a fireball and generally dissolve harmlessly in the atmosphere, even if it had the potential to strike Earth. It’s possible that some of the larger material will disperse as tiny meteorites. NASA has assessed the asteroid’s size to be between 3.5 and 8.5 metres.

Who made the asteroid discovery?

On January 21, amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov found the asteroid 2023 BU from his MARGO observatory in Nauchnye, Crimea. The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov had also been found by Borisov. He sent more data to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), a clearinghouse for tiny celestial body position measurements that is well-known on a global scale. The information was then immediately uploaded to the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page. After gathering enough data, the MPC made the discovery public, and within three days, a number of observatories all across the world had made dozens of observations. This improved how the orbit of 2023 BU was defined by astronomers.

The information on the MPC confirmation page was analysed by NASA’s Scout impact hazard assessment system, which quickly foresaw the asteroid’s close encounter. The Scout impact hazard assessment system is run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

Even though there were very few observations of asteroid 2023 BU, NASA’s Scout was still able to anticipate that it will approach Earth extremely closely, according to Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL, in a statement provided by NASA. He continued by stating that this was one of the known near-Earth object’s closest encounters ever seen on record.

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After striking Earth, what will happen to the asteroid’s orbit?

The gravitational pull of Earth will cause every asteroid that approaches to alter its route. Asteroid 2023 BU is anticipated to vary dramatically its orbital route around the Sun due to its close approach to Earth. The asteroid took 359 days to complete its orbit around the Sun, which was roughly circular before it came into contact with Earth.

At its furthest point from the Sun, the asteroid’s orbit will travel out to a location that is roughly halfway between Earth’s and Mars’ orbits after its encounter on January 27. The asteroid will then make one orbit every 425 days after that.