Backyard astronomers will get a chance to see a close-approach of an asteroid to Earth on January 29-30, 2008.            

Asteroid 2007 TU₂₄ will be about 334,000 miles (537,000 kilometers) from Earth, its closest approach, at 3:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on January 30, 2008. 

As a comparison, the Moon is about 239,000 miles (385 kilometers) from Earth—about 1.4 times as distant as the Moon’s orbit.

At the time of its closest approach to Earth, it will be traveling at about 5.7 miles (9.2 kilometers) per second.

Astronomers are predicting that skygazers with backyard telescopes should be able to see the asteroid if the January 29-30 night sky is clear and dark. The asteroid is estimated to be about fifty times fainter than the faintest object able to be seen with the naked eye. It will reach an approximate apparent magnitude of 10.3.

In fact, NASA astronomers suggest that amateur telescopes with apertures of at least 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) will be able to pick up the object.

Asteroid 2007 TU₂₄ was discovered on October 11, 2007, by astronomers involved with the NASA Catalina Sky Survey, based out of Arizona (U.S.A.). The asteroid is about 500 to 2,000 feet (150 to 610 meters) in diameter.

The asteroid has been well tracked since its discovery—in all, over one hundred times. In fact, in December 2007 it was taken off of NASA’s website that lists all asteroids that have a current risk of impact with the Earth.

Officials at the NASA Near-Earth Object Program Office (Jet Propulstion Laboratory, California) considers it to not be a risk for impact to Earth for at least one hundred years.

Astronomers project that this near-approach to Earth will be the closest approach of any asteroid until the year 2027. Scientists track most of these potentially hazardous asteroids in case one should be found to be on a direct course for a collision with Earth.

Although the chance for a direct hit with Earth is very small, the possibility still exists.
To follow the trajectory of Asteroid 2007 TU₂₄ as it approaches Earth, go to the NASA/JPL webpages: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007%20TU24;orb=1 or http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=2007%20TU24.

The position of the asteroid in the night sky, along with other information, can be found at the website "Asteroid to Make Rare Close Flyby of Earth": http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-012.

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Asteroid  Astronomy  Earth  NASA  NearEarth Object  Science  Telescope  William Atkins