A quintet of asteroids will all come close to Earth on October 24, but no need to hit the panic button. None are civilization killers, only one can be accurately called a potential hazard, and according to their calculated trajectories, they will all zoom past our planet with room to spare. Of the five asteroids set to breeze through on Thursday, only one of them fits the bill as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), and that one won’t be coming close enough to cause any alarm.
PHAs are defined as those whose closest approach to Earth is 0.05% of the average distance between our planet and the Sun. That may sound perilously close, but that’s still a distance of about 4.
65 million miles (7.5 million kilometers). To be considered a PHA, an asteroid must also have an absolute magnitude of 22 or less.
Although a measure of an object’s brightness, absolute magnitude can also help to determine an asteroid’s size. For a PHA, a measurement of 22 or under means the asteroid must be at least 500 feet (140 meters) across. The largest of the five space rocks is designated NV16 , and it’s been known to astronomers since 2022.
According to the Jet Propulsion Lab’s Small Body Database, the space rock has an absolute magnitude of 21.4, which translates to a diameter of about 580 feet (177 meters), or about one third of the height of the Freedom Tower. That’s not big enough to destroy the planet, but a collision from an asteroid that size would seriously damage a city.
The goo.
