Asteroid 2010 WC9 is back and is approaching Earth

in #news7 years ago (edited)

On November 30, 2010, the 2010 WC9 asteroid was first detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, and astronomers saw it until December 10, when it lost sight of it as it became extremely dim.

The limited observations did not allow then to define its orbit well, until it was observed in recent days, May 8, 2018, almost eight years later, when astronomers discovered an asteroid and granted it the temporary designation ZJ99C60. Then they realized that it was the 2010 WC9 asteroid, coming back.

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source : pixabay.com

The asteroid whose dimensions fluctuate between 197 and 427 feet (60 to 130 meters) in diameter, will pass about 203,000 kilometers from Earth, a distance that is almost half of that between our planet and the Moon. When reach the point closest to our planet - at 22:05 UTC on May 15 - the asteroid can be seen well in the southern hemisphere.

According to EarthSky, 2010 WC9 is one of the closest ever observed of an asteroid of this size although there is no risk of impact as claimed by specialists.

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Asteroid 2010 WC9 source