Today, two asteroids will fly by the Earth

Two asteroids, open this week, will pass by Earth tomorrow, on Tuesday, August 22. It is expected that these newly discovered asteroids, which received the designations 2017 PV25 and 2017 QT1, will be at a distance of 5.5 distance from the Earth-Moon (lunar distance, LD) and 2.6 LD respectively from our planet.

The asteroid 2017 PV25 is an Apollo-type asteroids, discovered on August 15 with the help of the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) surveillance system located at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. This system is an astronomical survey to detect dangerous asteroids in a few weeks or days before they approach Earth.

According to astronomers, the asteroid 2017 PV25 has an absolute value of 24.7 and a diameter between 23 and 71 meters. This near-Earth object moves around the Sun in an orbit with a semimajor axis of the order of 1.06 AU. And an orbital period of about 13 months. The cosmic stone will pass by our planet, moving at a relative speed of 6.46 kilometers per second, at 16:16 UTC.

The 2017 QT1 is also an Apollo-type asteroids, and it was first seen on August 17 using the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) telescope, also located in Hawaii. The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) is an astronomical survey that includes astronomical cameras, telescopes and information processing centers and allows you to keep an eye on the sky in search of moving objects.

It is expected that the asteroid 2017 QT1 will pass by our planet at 18:24 UTC, moving with a relative speed of 20.6 kilometers per second. This asteroid has an absolute value of 26.7 and a diameter between 8 and 27 meters. The semimajor axis of the orbit of this near-Earth object around the Sun is about 2.55 AU, and the orbital period is about 4 years.

As of August 20, scientists have discovered 1803 potentially dangerous asteroid, but the trajectory of movement of all these cosmic stones does not carry the threat of direct collision with our planet. Potentially dangerous are asteroids measuring over 100 meters, which approach the Earth at a distance of less than 19.5 LD.

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