Several asteroids set to fly past Earth in last weeks of December 2020: NASA

US space agency NASA announced on December 16 that a series of asteroids will fly past the Earth in the last week of 2020 at an ‘unusually close’ distance. Before the year 2020 winds up, these asteroids will whoosh past the solar system’s only habitable planet at a small margin, the administration informed. Asteroid 2020 XS5 known as the near-earth object is close to intersecting the Earth's orbit at a speed of 01h 34m 02s. But according to the orbit computations performed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Asteroid 2020 XS5 will not make an impact on the Earth. Although,  Asteroid 2020 XS5 will make the closest approach to the Earth with only 3,173,984 kilometers apart, a distance equivalent to 8.2556 Lunar Distances. 

Meanwhile, Asteroid 2020 XF4 will come within 0.00229 Astronomical Units (AU) to Earth, approximately 212,868 miles (342,577 km). The Asteroid 2020 XF4 will safely barrel past the earth with a distance of nearly 343,047 km. The average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 238,855 miles (384,400km). The asteroid of a size of 24-meter is expected to maintain a distance of 5 million kilometers in its trajectory as it flies past the blue planet. According to NASA, asteroid 2020 XF4 is distant enough not to be categorized as a ‘near-Earth' asteroid. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that are influenced by the gravitational force of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to make a flyby near the Earth.

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[NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) that travels to the Didymos asteroid system and observes impact. Credit: NASA]

[An artist's impression of an asteroid flyby. Credit: NASA]

Observed by Pan-STARRS 1

However, the newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 XX3 will fly by Earth at a distance of 0.15 LD or 0.00038 AU 56 847 km, approximately 35 323 miles this week. The fast-approaching asteroid was observed at Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala on December 10, and is expected to make a flypast around December 18. Asteroid 2020 XX3 has a diameter between 5.1 and 11 m (16 - 36 feet) and is classified as the Apollo group of asteroids. This will be the 102nd asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year 2020. The 2020 XX3 is expected to make a flypast at a distance of 57,100 km. Meanwhile, the asteroid 2020 XF3 will pass the Earth at a distance of approximately 6.9 million kilometers. 

[Asteroid Image Credit: NASA]

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