Blue Collar Scientist

An asteroid, 2007 TU24, will shortly pass close to Earth, with closest approach taking place on January 29, at 7:33 PM Alaska standard time. It will be 334,000 miles away at closest approach (about 1.4 lunar distances), and has no chance of hitting the Earth, contrary to what the doomsayer cranks are saying.

The asteroid is about 150 meters across, so should reach about 10th magnitude. From a dark sky, it should be visible in a big pair of binoculars to a well-prepared observer, and will certainly be visible in a small telescope. Orbits and ephemerides are available at the usual places.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under astronomy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.