Near-Earth Asteroid 2024MK's Close Encounter with Earth

TapTechNews June 24 news, an asteroid that is large enough to cause serious damage upon impacting the Earth will have a rare close encounter with the Earth this week, getting even closer than the moon. Fortunately, this asteroid will safely pass by our planet.

During its pass by the Earth, the brightness of this asteroid will be sufficient to be observed with binoculars, which is very rare for a near-Earth object and also the brightest such event in recent years. Most asteroids that are closer to the Earth than the moon are very small and can only be observed through large telescopes, and even if they impact the Earth (which happens occasionally), they will be completely burned up in the atmosphere.

According to TapTechNews, this space rock has been named 2024MK by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), it has a diameter of approximately 130 to 280 meters and was discovered on June 16 and officially announced on June 19.

This asteroid will be closest to the Earth on June 29, when the distance will be reduced to approximately 18.1 miles. In comparison, the average distance between the moon and the Earth is about 23.9 miles.

The European Space Agency said that the peak brightness of 2024MK will reach 8.5 magnitudes, which is comparable to the brightness of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Using an amateur telescope, this asteroid should be visible from the southern hemisphere when it approaches the Earth, and it will be more easily observed from the northern hemisphere after passing closest and starting to move away from us on Saturday.

Astronomers say there is no possibility of this asteroid hitting the Earth, but from a cosmic scale, for an object of this size, this is actually a very close encounter. The meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013, which destroyed thousands of windows, was less than one-tenth the size of 2024MK. The size of this asteroid belongs to what people commonly call the city killer category. In other words, if it collided with a major metropolitan area, it would be a terrifying disaster.