A Near-Earth Asteroid is coming so close to Earth on Wednesday, 29th April that amateur astronomers can observe it from their rooftops and backyards. 1998 OR2, as the name suggests, was discovered in 1998. NASA estimates the size to be between 1.8 km to 4.1 km. This Asteroid will be the most giant one to close-approach the Earth in the year 2020.

Credits: VideoFromSpace

NASA announced in a tweet that the Asteroid will safely pass by Earth.

Asteroid 1998 OR2 will safely pass by Earth at a distance of 3.9 million miles/6.2 million km on April 29. Astronomers studying the #asteroid with radar are also keeping a safe distance—from each other! Just another day for #planetarydefense https://t.co/32BSc0TkPM — NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) April 20, 2020

There are thousands of Near Earth Objects tracked by organisations such as NASA and Minor Planet Center. Each of these NEOs are listed on the websites of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and Minor Planet Center. Currently, NASA can predict the trajectories for all the potentially hazardous objects. A notable Asteroid in this list is Apophis.

Tutorial to get data regarding close approaches happening every day. Credits- JPL

While 1998 OR2 is going to make a close approach of approximate 16 LD (Lunar Distance), 2004 MN4 (Apophis) will be only 0.1 LD in the year 2029. With a size of around 310-680m, it will be visible to the naked eye. So mark your calendar space nerds, this event should not be missed.

Coming back to the Asteroid currently in the spotlight, 1992 OR2 will make the closest approach at 0956 UTC or 1526 IST. Therefore, it’ll be an afternoon at the time in India. You can still observe the Asteroid with telescopes in the night using this guide by EarthSky.org, or you can use the guide by in-the-sky.org. For those not having a telescope, fear not, The Virtual Telescope Project, a remote observatory founded by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy, will live webcast the event.

NASA also plans to conduct a #AskNASA session on r/askscience.

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Join our experts on @Reddit to ask questions about these objects zipping into our view.



📅 Tuesday, April 28

🕒 4pm ET

🔗 https://t.co/uZlZSCyvs2 pic.twitter.com/W1EkxMIkpN — NASA (@NASA) April 27, 2020