- NASA is monitoring two bus-sized asteroids passing Earth this week at safe distances
- Asteroid 2025 VP1 will pass about 361,000 miles from Earth traveling 18,300 mph on Tuesday
- Asteroid 2025 VC4 will pass about 1.24 million miles from Earth on Tuesday at similar size
Sometimes space reminds us how active and dynamic our solar system truly is. This week, NASA is closely watching several asteroids as they travel past Earth, including two that are nearly the size of a bus. While these space rocks are moving at high speeds, NASA says they pose no threat to our planet, reported Newsweek.
According to the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), NASA is currently closely monitoring an asteroid named 2025 VP1. This asteroid is moving toward Earth at a speed of more than 18,300 miles per hour. Its size is approximately 37 feet, which is equivalent to a bus. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) estimates that it will pass approximately 361,000 miles from Earth on Tuesday.
Similarly, NASA is also tracking another asteroid named 2025 VC4. This asteroid is also approximately the size of a bus and is scheduled to make its closest approach to Earth on Tuesday at a distance of approximately 1.24 million miles.
In addition to these two, NASA is also monitoring a much larger asteroid, 3361 Orpheus (1982 HR). Its diameter is approximately 1,400 feet, which is as large as a large bridge. It will pass by Earth on Wednesday at a speed of about 20,000 miles per hour.
Asteroids are rocky bodies formed from material left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most of them are found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, some, as they approach the sun, enter Earth's "orbital neighbourhood."
Such objects are called near-Earth objects (NEOs), which travel up to 120 million miles from the sun. NASA says that most NEOs do not pose a threat to Earth because they pass so far away.
Some larger asteroids are called potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). They are larger than 460 feet in size and can come within 4.6 million miles of Earth's orbit. Despite this, NASA says that none of the PHAs detected so far are likely to collide with Earth anytime soon.
According to CNEOS manager Paul Chodas, "potentially hazardous" doesn't mean an asteroid is going to collide directly with Earth. It just means that over a very long period of time, such as centuries or millennia, their orbit may change, creating a slight chance of a collision.
