Asteroid bigger than Empire State Building to fly by Earth on March 4; Here's how to watch

A monstrous asteroid the size of a small airplane is heading towards Earth and is likely to make its closest approach to the planet on March 4. Dubbed 2021 UL7, the asteroid measures 23 feet and is expected to make its flyby from a distance of about 43,90,000 kilometres from Earth. According to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the asteroid has been classified as a 'potentially hazardous' one but would pass from a safe distance and pose no threat to our planet. 

This asteroid will be accompanied by another space rock that is almost 30 times bigger than the 2021 UL7 and almost double the height of the Empire State Building. The asteroid named 138971 (2001 CB21) measures approximately 701 meters and is travelling at a speed of 59,223 kilometres per hour. NASA says that this asteroid is also classified as 'potentially hazardous' and would make its fly-by at a distance of 49,10,000 kilometers. Needless to say, it is a safe distance from Earth as it will be 13 times farther than the Moon is to our planet. 

How to watch the asteroid's flyby live?

While this distance is large enough to take a good look at the asteroid 2001 CB21, stargazers can still witness it making a close approach by tuning into the live streaming by Virtual Space Telescope (VST). First discovered in 2001, the asteroid was captured in a recent photograph by VST when it was approximately 5.4 million kilometres from the Earth.

Astrophysicist and author of the Virtual Space Telescope Project Gianluca wrote in a report, "The image above comes from a single 180-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, so it looks like a sharp dot, with surrounding stars appearing as long trails". According to Masi, the asteroid will reach its minimum distance from Earth at 1:29 pm (IST). Interestingly, 2001 CB21's size makes it bigger than 97% of the discovered asteroids and it completes one orbit around the sun every 384 days. 

Image: Unsplash