Asteroid danger! This space rock could fly extremely close to Earth today

Another day, another asteroid flyby, it has been the story of the month so far. August and September have witnessed over 35 asteroid close approaches and October is set to match, if not surpass the number. Asteroids have been responsible for some of the biggest events in history. From the Chelyabinsk disaster that claimed many lives to the meteor which caused the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago, whenever meteors have crashed on Earth, they have impacted lives. Now, another asteroid is on its way.

Asteroid 2022 UT5 key details

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has red-flagged an asteroid named Asteroid 2022 UT5 due to its extremely close approach with the planet. The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth today, October 27 at a distance of 2.6 million kilometers per hour. It is already on its way towards the planet travelling at a speed of nearly 33696 kilometers per hour!

According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 UT5 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was discovered recently on October 18. This asteroid takes 969 days to complete one trip around the Sun during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 433 million kilometers and nearest distance is 141 million kilometers.

How does NASA track these asteroids?

NASA keeps a watch on these asteroids by studying data collected by various telescopes and observatories such as the Pan-STARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey and the NEOWISE telescope. NASA also has a NEO Surveyor mission planned for launch in 2026 to gain even greater in-depth data using a new orbiter.

NASA also has a new impact monitoring system in place which uses an algorithm called Sentry-II to calculate the impact risk of Near-Earth Objects. NASA can track the orbital path of the asteroid using this infrared data and can even predict its orbit years into the future.