a space rock more than 140 meters widenicknamed as “The Christmas Asteroid“, will pass very close to Earth this coming Thursday, December 15, and from the European Space Agency They launched a curious challenge for amateur astronomers, who asked them to try to locate and photograph it.
The asteroid, identified as “2015 RN35”, does not represent a threat to our planetas he approached 680,000km when it is at its closest point. This is equivalent to a little less than two distances between the Moon and the Earth.
‘We don’t call this an unreasonable dare. The 2015 RN35 will not shine in the skies as the star of Bethlehem did millennia ago”, began by saying the European Space Agency (ESA, for its acronym in English) in a publication made on its official website. There, he challenged the fans who try to find it in the sky and they can capture some images of the asteroid.
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The stargazers who are in the Southern Hemisphere will have a better view of the asteroidwhile the inhabitants of Europe will also be able to see it between September 13 and 19.
“It’s smaller than the Statue of Liberty, is quite small on astronomical scales. And as flybys go on, at just under twice the lunar distance, it’s not likely to make the newspaper headlines,” he said from the space agency.
“Use the hashtag #ESANavidadAsteroid on social media to post their results, which we will share on our @esaoperations account channel,” they added.
The rocky object has caused a sensation and is of particular interest to the scientific community as it there is not much information about it. The experts do not know what it is made of, how much exactly it measures and if it rotates on its own axis.
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The importance of asteroid detection
While space agencies have successfully detected “planet killers“, there is uncertainty about hundreds of thousands of medium-sized asteroids. Most asteroids of this type, like our “Christmas friend”, have not yet been fully discovered.
Scientists believe they could cause great damage to a local area if they hit Earth. To help amateur and professional astronomers spot this Christmas asteroid, ESA has a “toolkit” available to everyone for free.
This kit allows people visualize the orbit of the rock and its flyby on December 15, even when it is visible from different places on Earth. Observers using it can learn more about the Apollo group of asteroids, to which it belongswhile planning how to spot it depending on where exactly in the world it is.
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