Asteroid 2023 TK15, an Apollo group space rock, will come extremely close to Earth | Details

NASA recently issued an alert about an asteroid that is approaching Earth and will be extremely near to it on Friday (Oct 20). The asteroid, designated as Asteroid 2023 TK15, will make its closest appearance to the Earth, which will be even closer than the moon, said the space agency.

The approaching space rock belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axis larger than that of Earth. These asteroids are named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, which was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth around the 1930s. NASA has kept its radar on these asteroids for a long timein its attempt to save the Earth from being hit by space rocks.

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Asteroid 2023 TK15

According to NASA, Asteroid 2023 TK15 will pass Earth at an extremely close distance of just 379,994 km, which is even closer than the Moon. Just to put it into perspective, the distance of the Moon from Earth is 384,400 km. Hence, it will be one of the closest asteroid approaches of the year so far.

The asteroid has been discovered and tracked using various advanced technological instruments, such as the NEOWISE telescope, Atacama large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Pans-STARRS1 and Catalina Sky Survey.

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Is it dangerous?

Despite Asteroid 2023 TK15’s extremely close approach, it does not pose a threat to Earth due to its small size, as per NASA. The space agency estimates it to be around 130 feet wide, which is almost as big as an aircraft.

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This is not the first time that Asteroid 2013 TK15 will pass the Earth. Last year on June 18, the asteroid made a non-threatening close approach to the planet.

This year’s approach of Asteroid 2013 TK15 might be the last closest appearance, as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has already denied any such approaches in future.

(With inputs from agencies)

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