Giant Asteroid Heading Close to Earth - Get Out Your Telescope

A giant asteroid weighing 55 million tonnes and about the size of an aircraft carrier, will just miss the Earth later this year, Nasa experts have predicted.  The spherical Asteroid YU55 will pass close to earth in November 2011.  The rock, which is quarter of a mile across, will pass between our planet and the moon and will be visible with small telescopes.

Robin Scagell of the Society for Popular Astronomy said: “It’s rare we get the chance to see an asteroid up close.”  If it were to hit the earth, the asteroid, named YU55, would have an impact equivalent to 65,000 atom bombs and would leave a crater more than six miles wide and 2,000ft deep.

Passing by at a distance of just 201,000 miles, the asteroid will be the largest object ever to approach the earth so closely.  Nasa has officially labelled it a Potentially Hazardous Object, but have stressed there is no danger of impact while on its current course. YU55 orbits the sun every 14 years and last passed the earth in April 2010 at a distance of 1.5 million miles.

There are currently 874 near earth asteroids which are considered to be potentially dangerous. They are closely monitored and the list is being constantly added to as astronomers discover new objects in near space.  Scientists estimate that there is usually one large collision with earth every few hundred thousand years.
 "YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision for, at the very least, the next 100 years," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "During its closest approach, its gravitational effect on the Earth will be so minuscule as to be immeasurable.

It will be a pretty near miss but it is not expected to have any effects on earth's winds, tides or weather.  So grab your telescope and enjoy a  rare  experience . Astronomers  are looking forward to the encounter, which could help them learn more about big space rocks.