Gianluca Masi, an astronomer from the Virtual Telescope Project, revealed that the close proximity of asteroid 2023 EY to Earth in cosmic terms would allow large ground-based telescopes to capture its passing. However, based on its current trajectory, there is no risk of a collision with our planet, according to Space.
2023 EY is among the few asteroids that fly closer to Earth than the Moon. Image: Knews
With an estimated diameter of 13-29 meters, asteroid 2023 EY is comparable to the Chelyabinsk meteor (17-20 meters) that flew over the Russian city of the same name on February 15th, 2013, generating a shockwave that shattered thousands of windows and injured 1,500 people. To date, 2023 EY is one of the 14 asteroids that have flown closer to Earth than the Moon.
Asteroid 2023 EY was first detected a few days ago, on March 13th, through the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), funded by NASA and operated by the University of Hawaii. ATLAS is the first system capable of scanning the entire sky every 24 hours, enabling astronomers to identify and classify near-Earth objects such as asteroids.
The survey system consists of four telescopes that can scan an area of the sky 100 times larger than a full moon, according to NASA. Two telescopes are located in Hawaii, and the other two are in South Africa and Chile. So far, ATLAS has discovered 700 near-Earth asteroids.
“We haven’t found any significant threats from the asteroid, but we will continue to search for this population of larger objects. Our goal is to predict potential impacts years or even decades in advance, utilizing deflection technologies such as DART,” shared Lindley Johnson, a planetary defense expert at NASA headquarters.
(According to Space)