Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (488453) 1994 XD close encounter: a image – 24 May 2023
Next 12 June 2023, the large (diameter between 370 and 830 meters) potentially hazardous asteroid (488453) 1994 XD will have a relatively close and obviously safe encounter with the Earth. It will come as close as 3.1 millions of km, about 8 times the average lunar distance. Here it is our image.
The image above comes from the average of three, 120-second exposures, remotely taken with the Celestron C14+Paramount ME+SBIG ST8-XME robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project.
At the imaging time, asteroid (488455) 1994 XD was at about 36 millions of km from the Earth and it was slowly approaching us. The asteroid was discovered by the Spacewatch survey, from Kitt Peak Observatory, on 1 Dec. 1994.
This 370m – 830m large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 3.1 millions of km, about 8 times the average lunar distance) from us on 12 June 2023, at 00:53 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.
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