Friday, 16 May 2014

Asteroid 2014 JS25 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2014 JS25 passed by the Earth at a distance of 4 050 000 km (over ten times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon) slightly after 10.15 am GMT on Friday 9 May 2014. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, and even had it doe so it would have presented a minimal threat. 2014 JS25 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 9-30 m (i.e. a spherical object with the same volume would have a diameter of 9-30 m) and an object of this size would be expected to break up in the Earth's atmosphere between 33 and 16 km above the planet's surface, with only fragmentary material reaching the ground.

The calculated orbit of 2014 JS25. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

2014 JS25 was discovered on 7 May 2014 (two days before its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Hawaii's PANSTARRS telescope on Mount Haleakala. The designation 2014 JS25 implies that it was the 644th asteroid (asteroid S25) discovered in the first half of May 2014 (period 2014 J).

While 2014 JS25 occasionally comes near to the Earth, it does not actually cross our orbital path. It has an elliptical 1031 day orbit, that takes it from 1.01 AU from the Sun (1.01 times the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun), slightly outside our orbit, to 2.98 AU from the Sun, (2.98 times the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, nearly twice the distance at which the planet Mars orbits the Sun). As a Near Earth Object that remains strictly outside the orbit of the Earth it is classed as an Amor Family Asteroid.

See also...


Asteroid 2014 HX164 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 428 900 km (1.12 times the average distance between the Earth and the...




Asteroid 2014 JR25 passed by the Earth at a distance of 861 100 km (2.24 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon)...



 Asteroid 2014 HO132 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2014 HO132 passed the Earth at a distance of 824 300 km (2.14 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon) at about 8.10 am GMT on Monday 5 May 2014. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though if it had it would have presented...



Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.