Two bus-sized asteroids will be buzzing by Earth over the next couple of days. According to NASA’s Asteroid Watch, 2024 JF will be flying by on Monday, while 2024 JR1 will make its close encounter Tuesday. Neither asteroid poses a danger to our planet.
2024 JF will be the first of the two asteroids in Earth’s vicinity. The 22-foot-long rock will whiz by Earth from 295,000 miles away. Space.com reports 2024 JF will make its fly-by around 8:04 p.m. E.T.
The second asteroid, the 32-foot-long 2024 JR1, will be 184,000 miles away when it makes its approach on Tuesday. The asteroid will actually be closer to Earth when it passes than the Moon, which is 238,900 miles away. JR1 was just discovered on May 4.
An airplane-sized asteroid, dubbed 2024 HE2 and measuring at 71 feet, will also be passing by Earth, but at a far greater distance than the two bus-sized asteroids — 750,000 miles away.
For those unfamiliar with Asteroid Watch, it’s managed for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don’t bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact, but a small fraction of them – called potentially hazardous asteroids – require more attention. These objects are defined as asteroids that are more than about 460 feet (140 meters) in size with orbits that bring them as close as within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth’s orbit around the Sun. [The Center for Near Earth Object Studies] continuously monitors all known near-Earth objects to assess any impact risk they may pose,” the Asteroid Watch website reads.
Amateur astronomers can watch 2024 JF and 2024 JR1 at the Virtual Telescope Project.
