Potentially hazardous Apollo asteroid to galloping towards earth, likely to fly by on May 7
An asteroid 210-metre in diametre is hurling towards earth and is likely to come particularly close on May 7, when the asteroid is like to fly past. NASA Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies has revealed details about the asteroid on its website. The Apollo category space rocks are considered to be the most dangerous type of intruders as they intersect Earth's orbit with theirs.
The '438908 (2009 XO)' is a very small asteroid whose orbit crosses the orbit of Earth. NASA JPL has classified 2009 XO as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid" due to its predicted close encounter with Earth.
The 2009 XO orbits the sun every 926 days (2.54 years), coming as close as 0.85 AU and reaching as far as 2.87 AU from the sun. Based on its brightness and the way it reflects light, 2009 XO is probably between 0.211 to 0.472 kilometres in diameter, making it a small to average asteroid, very roughly comparable in size to a football field.
Close Approaches
In the next 180 years, the asteroid is likely to have 12 near-earth encounters.
| Date | Distance from Earth (km) | Velocity (km/s) |
|---|---|---|
| May 7, 2020 | 3,393,570 | 12.781 |
| Jan. 4, 2048 | 24,121,743 | 17.012 |
| March 14, 2053 | 21,361,496 | 10.119 |
| May 20, 2058 | 25,195,604 | 17.229 |
| Jan. 15, 2086 | 2,503,664 | 12.568 |
| March 14, 2091 | 21,361,069 | 10.102 |
| May 7, 2096 | 1,534,180 | 12.450 |
| Jan. 4, 2119 | 29,668,780 | 18.147 |
| March 29, 2124 | 20,148,645 | 9.978 |
| Jan. 26, 2152 | 6,951,991 | 10.852 |
| May 15, 2157 | 10,944,142 | 14.331 |
| May 24, 2185 | 27,406,086 | 17.649 |