UPDATE: Dec. 25, 2015. 12:15PM EST
All is calm. All is bright.
Check out some NASA imagery from the event:
These images of an asteroid that is at least 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) long were taken on Dec. 17, 2015, (left) and Dec. 22 (right) by scientists using NASA’s 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California. This asteroid, named 2003 SD2020, will safely fly past Earth on Thursday, Dec. 24, at a distance of 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers). On Dec. 17, it was about 7.3 million miles (12 million kilometers) from Earth. By Dec. 22, it was closing in on its Christmas Eve flyby distance. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR)
ORIGINAL: Dec. 15, 2015
If you see an unusual object in the sky this December 24, it won’t be the Christmas Star guiding the wise men to Bethlehem. Rather, it will be a special holiday asteroid passing by the Earth at a safe distance of approximately 6.7 million miles (11 million km, or 0.074 AU).
At that distance, the object known as asteroid 2003 SD220 and asteroid 163899 will still be more than 28 times further away than the moon, meaning that your holiday plans are in no danger. The space rock won’t be, as Gizmodo so eloquently put it, “the Grinch that annihilated Christmas.”
Asteroid 2003 SD220, which as its name suggests was discovered 12 years ago, will likely only be visible to professional and amateur astronomers. Early estimates suggested it would be 0.7 to 1.5 miles (1.1 km to 2.5 km) in size, but more recent observations from the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico indicate it is approximately 1.25 miles (2 km) long.
Object will be hard to see, is unlikely to cause earthquakes
The asteroid looks somewhat reminiscent of a chicken tender or a pickle, and reports indicate that it’s traveling at a speed of roughly 17.5 miles per second. It appears to exhibit an extremely slow rotation of about one week, and once it passes by this holiday season, it will not return for three more years. NASA says it poses no threat for at least 200 years.
Some media outlets have reported that asteroid 163899’s Christmas Eve flyby has the potential to cause earthquakes, but those claims are false and misleading, according to Earthsky. For one thing, it is passing at too great a distance, and even if it were closer, the website notes that there is no evidence that a passing asteroid has any impact on Earth’s seismic activity.
The Arecibio Observatory will continue monitoring the object through December 17, and the Goldstone Antenna in California will be tracking it through December 20. Asteroid 2003 SD220 is on NASA’s Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS) list—meaning that it is a potential target for a manned spaceflight rendezvous mission.
Unfortunately, unlike 2015 TB145 (the Halloween asteroid), 2003 SD220 will be difficult to see without the use of high-end equipment, but at least it won’t ruin everybody’s holiday by crashing into the planet or causing massive earthquakes.
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Feature Image: Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF
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