Asteroid Florence to pass by Earth, closest in over century
Digital Reporter
Friday, September 1, 2017, 7:33 PM - Florence the asteroid is set to safely pass by Earth Friday, and it's the largest to flyby our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began, according to the space agency.
However, the space rock is not on a collision course with our planet.
Named after the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale, the asteroid was first discovered in March 1981 by Schelte J. Bus, an astronomer at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.
NASA reports Florence is about 4.4 km in size and will travel at a distance of about 7.0 million km.
"While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller," says Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
The 2017 flyby will be the closest the asteroid has ever been to Earth since 1890, and the closest it will get until after 2500.
This close encounter will give scientists the opportunity to study Florence. Radar imagery will show the real size of the asteroid, shape, rotation, and could even reveal tiny surface details.
According to NASA, anything larger than one to two kilometres could have worldwide effects. The largest known potentially hazardous asteroid is Toutatis at 5.4 km.
SOURCE: NASA
