According to NASA, “the orbits of asteroids can be changed by Jupiter’s massive gravity and by occasional close encounters with planets like Mars or other objects. These accidental encounters can knock asteroids out of the main belt and hurl them into space in all directions across the orbits of the other planets. With the help of its advanced space and ground-based telescopes, NASA has now revealed that an asteroid is expected to pass Earth by a close margin on Dcember 19.”
As per NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, “after tracking the asteroid’s orbit using it’s various satellites and space and ground-based telescopes, such as NEOWISE, Catalina Sky Survey, Aracama Large Milimeter/submilimeter Array (ALMA), Pans-STARRS1, and more. The asteroids 2023 XS is expected to pass Earth by a distance of 4.3 million kilometers.”
“It belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth’s. These asteroids are named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. It is already hurtling in its orbit at a speed of about 32653 killometers per hour, which is much faster than an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)!”They also revealed, “Asteroid 2023 XS has not passed Earth before, and this will be its first-ever close approach. After today, the Apollo group asteroid is not expected to pass by the planet anytime in the near future.”
