Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (612356) 2002 JX8 close encounter: an image – 25 Apr. 2025.
We imaged again the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (612356) 2002 JX8, going to have a safe close encounter with the Earth on 9 May 2025, coming as close as 4.2 millions of km from us, 10.9 times the average lunar distance.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (612356) 2002 JX8: 25 Apr. 2025.
The image above comes from a single 120-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″ + Paramount MEII + SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, so it looks like a sharp dot of light, marked with an arrow, while stars show as short trails.
At the imaging time, potentially hazardous asteroid (612356) 2002 JX8 was at about 7.9 million of km from us and approaching.
This 230 – 510 meters large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 4.2 millions of km, 10.9 times the average lunar distance) from us on 9 May 2025, at 11:02 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.
We will show asteroid 2002 JX8 live, online, on 10 May 2025: join the live feed here!
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