JPL: RV-Size Asteroid To Get Closer To Earth Than The Moon on Thursday

An asteroid will get awfully close to Earth on Thursday (Sept. 24) when it whizzes by our planet closer than the moon orbits.

The asteroid — known as 2020 SW — isn’t expected to collide with Earth, according to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. But it will get close, passing about 16,700 miles (27,000 kilometers) away from Earth, according to the Virtual Telescope Project.

To put this in perspective, the moon on average is about 238,900 miles (384,000 km) from us, or about 30 Earths away. This asteroid will pass at a distance of about 2.1 Earths, livescience.com reported. 

This means asteroid 2020 SW will pass even closer than TV and weather satellites, which orbit at about 22,300 miles (35,888 km) away from Earth, according to EarthSky.

Scientists have yet to pin down the asteroid’s exact size, but it’s not that large, likely between 14 feet and 32 feet (4.4 and 9.9 meters) long, according to CNEOS. This potentially RV-size asteroid was discovered on Sept. 18 by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona. It was announced the next day by the Minor Planet Center, a NASA-funded group that monitors minor planets, comets, and natural satellites. (It’s not unusual to find unknown asteroids; in September alone, the Minor Planet Center has announced the discovery of 244 near-Earth objects.) 

Passing by Earth will actually be a life-changing event for asteroid 2020 SW. It’s such a small asteroid that Earth’s gravity is expected to change the space rock’s course when it zooms by our planet at 7:18 a.m. EDT, according to EarthSky. 

After asteroid 2020 SW’s close shave with Earth, it won’t pay our planet another visit until June 3, 2029, according to JPL.

That said, the asteroid is certainly rushing to see us this Thursday (we hope it has a face mask), traveling at a velocity of about 17,200 mph (27,720 km/h, or 7.7 km/second) relative to Earth, JPL reported.

The asteroid will appear brighter as it nears Earth, but it won’t be visible to the naked eye. If you want a clear view of the space rock, visit  The Virtual Telescope website, which is showing a live feed starting at 6 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 23.