The Next Near Earth, Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Is The Size Of A School Bus

Today is the day NASA predicted the asteroid 2021 NY1 would orbit closest to our own planet Earth. This asteroid is classified as a "very small" asteroid, coming in at between 0.133 to 0.297 kilometers in diameter. Predictions suggest this asteroid will have four relatively close approaches to Earth in the next few decades, the closest of which is today!

NASA JPL classified 2021 NY1 as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, and places the approach at around 1,022,513 miles from our planet, or 0.011 au. It's estimated by NASA JPL that this is the closest this asteroid has gotten to Earth since close approaches have been calculated – back to 1918, when the minimum distance between 2021 NY1 and Earth was 0.044 au.

This asteroid was last officially observed on September 7, 2021, and it was determined that the asteroid would not crash violently into the surface of our planet. For more information on the specifics of 2021 NY1, see the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with the California Institute of Technology. This page will be part of a "significant website upgrade" scheduled for September 27, 2021.

This asteroid has an approximate diameter of 0.171 km and an orbit period of 1,400 days (that's 3.83 years). The average orbit speed is 19.01 km/s, and it is NOT classified as a rock that we humans will be landing on any time soon.

Other asteroids that'll pass Earth today include 2007 RY19, and 2021 RS. It would appear that both asteroids will pass by our planet (or have already passed by, depending on when you read this article) without impact.