NASA Monitoring Asteroids The Size Of A Bus Hurtling Towards Earth
NASA’s has been busy tracking a trio of sizable asteroids hurtling past Earth’s orbit, one traveling as close as 361,000 miles from us. While scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) assured the public that there's no immediate danger with any of these objects, these flybys are fantastic opportunities to improve our own planetary defense strategies should the need arise.
Moreover, the week's tracking list includes a far more imposing behemoth: 3361 Orpheus (1982 HR). Discovered in 1982 (as the name implies), this asteroid is massive, measuring an estimated 1,400 feet in diameter (comparable in size to something like the Empire State Building). Putting along at a more leisurely 20,000 miles per hour, Orpheus is expected to pass today at a safe distance, although its sheer size and orbital path classify it as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA).
For the scientists engaged in planetary defense, every flyby (the latest ones included), regardless of the object's size, provides valuable data. These harmless approaches allow teams to refine their orbital models and improve predictive capabilities, ensuring the world’s detection and tracking systems remain on-point. That said, these flybys have taken on a new layer of interest as they occur amid the ongoing mystery surrounding objects like Comet 3I/ATLAS, whose unusual behavior has fascinated and occasionally perplexed astronomers.
