43-foot Apollo group asteroid to come as close as 1.6 mn km to Earth, says NASA

In a new development, NASA’s Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), responsible for monitoring the skies and watching various Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), has shed light on an asteroid that will pass Earth closely today, December 12. NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has designated this space rock as Asteroid 2023 XO1. The space agency uses its advanced ground and space-based telescopes such as NEOWISE telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Pans-STARRS1 and Catalina Sky Survey to discover, track and categorize these space rocks. Know the details of this close encounter with Asteroid 2023 XO1.

Asteroid 2023 XO1: Close approach details

The asteroid will pass Earth today, December 12, at a distance of 1.6 million kilometers. It is already rushing towards Earth in its orbit, travelling at a speed of about 25969 kilometers per hour, which is even faster than the speed of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)!

This space rock belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth's. These asteroids are named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

How big is it?

NASA has also revealed details about the asteroid’s size, and it is not big enough to be classified as a ‘Potentially Hazardous Asteroid’ as it is considerably smaller than 492 feet. It is approximately 43 feet wide, making it almost as big as a house. 

Asteroid 2023 XO1 is just one of the asteroids that are set to pass Earth today, with three more asteroids, Asteroid 2023 XN3, Asteroid 2023 WO3, and Asteroid 2023 XZ2 also on their way. NASA has also revealed that this asteroid passed Earth for the first time ever on December 12, 1985, at a distance of about 1.7 million kilometers. After today, it will come close to Earth again next year, on August 21, at a distance of 53 million kilometers.