The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that tracks objects in the outer sky has spotted an asteroid nearly 1.3 kilometers in size heading towards Earth. Dubbed as potentially hazardous the object will make its close approach to Earth on March 4, coming as close to Earth as 49,11,298 kilometers.

The Near-Earth Object called 138971 (2001 CB21) is on its way to the Sun, completing its orbit in just under 400 days. At its closest approach to the planet, the outer space object will be traveling at a whopping speed of 43,236 kilometers per hour. The last time it came this close to Earth was in 2006 when the asteroid swooped past from a distance of 71,61,250 kilometers.

Once the asteroid comes close to Earth on March 4, its next such close approach is scheduled in March 2043 when it arrives at just 48,15,555 kilometers from Earth. The orbital forecast has been released by the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) under the JPL. The agency has also released the orbit of the asteroid for its March 4 rendezvous with the planet.

Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) captured by the Virtual Telescope Project. (Photo: Gianluca Masi at the Virtual Telescope Project)

While JPL has released the orbit, astronomer Gianluca Masi at the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy managed to capture the object floating in the vacuum of space, hurtling towards us. Using a land-based telescope, Masi captured the asteroid when it was nearly 35 million kilometers away from Earth.

The 138971 (2001 CB21 was first spotted by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, which has been responsible for more than 24 percent of the discoveries of all known potentially hazardous asteroids. The program has reported more than 14 million observations of asteroids and comets and has found 6,001 new objects, including 142 previously undiscovered NEOs, four potentially hazardous objects, and eight new comets.

The orbit of asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) in white. (Photo: CNEOS)

WHAT ARE ASTEROIDS?

Asteroids are rocky fragments left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. According to the Nasa Joint Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which tracks asteroid movement, an asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object when its distance from our planet is less than 1.3 times the distance from Earth to the Sun (the Earth-Sun distance is about 93 million miles).

Nasa last year reached a milestone of detecting the 1000th Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA)  after its radars picked up 2021 PJ1. The radar detection of these fast-moving objects, which began in 1968, helps astronomers understand the NEO orbits, providing data that can extend calculations of future motion by decades to centuries and help definitively predict if an asteroid is going to hit Earth, or if it’s just going to pass close by.