On Thursday , September 24 , a school bus - sized asteroid will fly past the airfoil of our planet at a space of 22,000 kilometers ( 13,600 Roman mile ) . While it is important to monitor as many of these near - Earth objects ( NEOs ) as potential , the size and trajectory of this small consistency do not position any concern .
2020 SW , as this space sway has been designated , is between 5 and 10 meter across ( 15 to 30 feet ) . Even if 2020 SW was on an eye socket to collide with our planet , the tilt would probably combust high up up in the atmosphere .
" There are a bombastic figure of tiny asteroids like this one , and several of them approach our planet as close as this several times every yr , " Paul Chodas , director of the Center for Near - Earth Object Studies ( CNEOS ) at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , said in astatement . " In fact , asteroids of this sizing bear upon our ambiance at an median pace of about once every year or two . "
The asteroid was discovered last calendar week on September 18 when the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona spotted the approaching objective . Thanks to follow up observations conduct by CNEOS , we now know that its close approach will take place at 7:12am EDT somewhere over the Southeastern Pacific Ocean .
The next clip this cosmic boulder will be close enough to Earth again will be 2041 . During that passage , 2020 SW will be even further away from Earth . While this is a safe body , NASA and other means across the world have to remain wakeful as 100 million of these bodies are potential to exist and the vast legal age are yet to be found .
" The detection capabilities of NASA ’s asteroid sketch are continually improving , and we should now look to rule asteroids of this sizing a couple twenty-four hours before they come in near our planet , " sum up Chodas .
NASA is seek to catalog every unsafe NEO and while much onward motion has been achieved over the last 15 old age , a stack more work remain to be done .
