Asteroid 2014 RC — nickname Pitbull — will be making its close approach to Earth on Sunday , September 7 . This 20 - measure - wide-eyed asteroid will be pass just 40,000 kilometers ( 25,000 miles ) aside , which is roughly a tenth part of the average distance to the synodic month . Two observatories independently observed the asteroid just days ago during Labor Day weekend .
idea of Pitbull ’s ambit . Image Credit : NASA / JPL - Caltech
Do n’t freak out out : The asteroid does n’t pose a menace . NASA also reportsthat it will also be just out of reach from weather and communication satellites in in high spirits Earth and geosynchronous orbital cavity . There are over 11,000 near - Earth objects whizzing by at any given clip , so it ’s not completely unprecedented that one would get along this close . The Slooh Community Observatory reports that if the asteroid were to hit us , it would cause more damage than the impact inChelyabinsk , Russiain 2013 . gratefully , that ’s nothing we have to vex about .
Though Pitbull will be approaching about 1/10th of the distance of the lunation , the Earth is n’t in any risk . Times represented in Universal Time . paradigm Credit : NASA / JPL - Caltech
Astronomers are taking vantage of this close approach and will utilise the opportunity to track the asteroid and set if it is potential that Pitbull will gravel a scourge in the future .
alas , the asteroid is too small to find out with the raw eye and will be incite too fast to be spotted by the modal amateur ’s telescope , but that does n’t mean you wo n’t be able-bodied to catch a coup d’oeil of it .
The folks atSloohwill be doing a springy webcast as Pitbull makes its cheeseparing glide path , and you’re able to watch out it the right way here . The issue will begin on Saturday at 10 p.m. EDT and will be joined by astronomers Bob Berman and Geoff Fox . If you ’d wish to join the conversation too , be trusted to use # SloohPitbull on societal media .
