'Potentially hazardous' asteroid to pass by Earth: Know when and how to watch in India

The largest asteroid to pass by earth in the year 2021 will be at its closest distance, which is 2 million kilometres,  on Sunday, March 21. The asteroid named 2001 F032 was discovered in March 2001 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program in Socorro, New Mexico. Although initially labelled as a ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid due to its proximity, astronomers have dismissed any possibility of its collision with the earth in “centuries” to come. 

"There is no threat of a collision with our planet now or for centuries to come,” NASA said in a statement. 

The giant asteroid will zip past the planet at a whopping velocity of 123,876 kilometres per hour, making it considerably faster than regular asteroids. As per NASA, the asteroid is moving faster than others because of its elongated orbit, which is 810 days long. 

“We know the orbital path of 2001 FO32 around the Sun very accurately since it was discovered 20 years ago and has been tracked ever since”, said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, in a statement. "There is no chance the asteroid will get any closer to Earth than 1.25 million miles,” he added. 

Image: NASA

How and When to watch in India

According to the Paris Observatory, the asteroid will be at its closest to Earth at around 4.00 pm GMT on March 21, 2021. That implies that it would be visible in India at 9: 30 pm IST.  As per Chodas, the asteroid will be the brightest when it moves through the southern skies. The NASA expert further said a “moderate size telescope” is required to see it from home. 

“Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere and at low northern latitudes should be able to see this asteroid using moderate size telescopes with apertures of at least 8 inches in the nights leading up to closest approach, but they will probably need star charts to find it,” he said.

(Promo Image Credits: NASA)