Asteroid the size of the Titanic to fly past Earth today, January 16

Asteroids are often flying past Earth. Don’t worry, NASA keeps an eye on all of them and analyses them to see which could be potentially dangerous. Does this latest asteroid pose any threat? Let’s find out!

The size of the Titanic

As reported by The Jerusalem Post, the asteroid flying past Earth today is called 2012 BV13 according to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The asteroid has a diameter between 100 and 220 metres. For reference, the infamous ship that sunk all those years ago was 269 metres, so the asteroid is slightly smaller than the Titanic.

What makes this asteroid interesting?

Not every asteroid is the same, which makes sense considering how big space is. 2012 BV13 is particularly interesting as it is an Aten-class asteroid, But what does this mean?

According to The Jerusalem Post, an Aten-class asteroid orbits around the Sun and can also overlap the Earth’s orbit. It is mainly situated between the Earth and the Sun.

How close will it come to Earth?

Now onto the most important question: How close will asteroid 2012 BV13 come to Earth?

According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, asteroid 2012 BV13’s closest approach to Earth will be 2,890,000 miles or 4,660,000 kilometres.

Read like that, it doesn’t seem like it’s that close, but in space terms and for an asteroid, it is still relatively close.

Sources used:

The Jerusalem Post: Titanic-sized asteroid to sail pass Earth on Monday - NASA

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory