Asteroid Florence path: Nasa map shows largest near-Earth object EVER approaching TONIGHT
ASTEROID Florence – the largest near Earth object ever detected by NASA – is fast approaching Earth and this is the path the HUGE space rock will take in the next 24 hours.
By SEAN MARTIN
Express.co.uk
Thu, Aug 31, 2017
The three-mile wide asteroid – big enough to wipe out all life on earth FIVE times over – will pass by at a distance of just 4 million miles, a hair’s breadth in astronomical terms.
It will be visible with the naked aye across the globe, especially tonight when it reaches peak brightness high overhead in the night sky.
And as the staggering Nasa orbit track of the space rock above shows, Asteroid Florence will come terrifyingly close to our home planet in the next 24 hours.
The asteroid takes approximately 858 days to orbit the sun, but due to the egg-shaped trajectory, it rarely comes this close to the planet.
As Earth continues its journey around the sun, Asteroid Florence – because it travels much quicker than our planet – will surge ahead of Earth on a similar trajectory.
Then, after more than two months of travelling between the orbital trajectory of Earth and the next door neighbour, Mars, it will shoot out into the planetary void between Mars and Jupiter.
Due to the vast distance between the Red Planet and the ‘King of the Solar System’, Asteroid Florence will not get anywhere near to Jupiter as it travels around the sun.
But, due to its egg-shaped orbit, it will not cross Earth’s trajectory for almost three years – at which point the planet will be in a different place around the sun and it is likely that the next time Earth and Asteroid Florence meet again will be around 2050.
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