Look live , citizenry . An asteroid is about to make a passably airless approach to Earth – but do n’t worry , there ’s essentially no prospect it will hit us .
The asteroid is called 3200 Phaethon , constitute after the Hellenic mythological son of Helios , the Son god . The bad news is that , in Greek mythology , Phaethon nearlyset Earth on fireand had to be destroy . Eek .
The honorable news is that this asteroid probably wo n’t deal us a repetition performance when it swing past our planet on December 16 . But it will provide us with an exciting chance to study this rock as it tears through quad .
" This will be the best chance to date for radio detection and ranging observation of this asteroid and we desire to obtain elaborate images , " saidNASA .
" The images should be excellent for receive a detailed 3D model . "
Phaethon ( the asteroid ) is thought to be about 5 kilometers ( 3 miles ) across , making it the third largest near - Earth potentially hazardous asteroid ( PHA ) . It was come upon in 1983 by NASA , with its last close coming come in 2007 .
This time around the asteroid will transcend within 10 million kilometre ( 6.2 million miles ) of our planet . That ’s kinda close , about 27 time further than the Moon , but nowhere most enough to be a cause for warning machine . It is , however , closemouthed than it came in 2007 .
" The 2017 apparition is the closest to Earth since the asteroid ’s discovery so it may be potential for opthalmic observers to detect new activeness , " state NASA .
Interestingly , Phaethon is thought to be responsible for the annual Geminids meteor shower bath on December 13 and 14 , due to similarities between its orbit and the meteors .
But shooting star storm are usually get by comets , which have tooshie of debris drop behind behind them that cut up in our atmosphere . Asteroids are not supposed to have these , so it ’s possible Phaethon is either breaking apart , or it ’s not an asteroid at all – and is , in fact , adead comet .
So this closelipped pass to Earth is going to be pretty exciting . There are a number of closer approaches in the next few century though ( the next is 2050 ) , with the closest coming on December 14 , 2093 . Phaethon will go by within 3 million km ( 1.9 million mi ) of our planet then . We should be ok , though .
