A stony asteroid of the Amor group, Florence, will safely fly past Earthon September 1. However, what makes this asteroid different is its size. Classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous object (PHO), it is approximately five kilometers in diameter.
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Asteroid Florence was discovered in March 1981 by American astronomer Schelte J 'Bobby' Bus at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.
The asteroid will be passing by 18 times the distance between Earth and Moon, which is around 7.08 million kilometers (4.4 million miles).
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Though many asteroids have passed by Earth closely, Florence is found to be the biggest asteroid since NASA started keeping a track of near-Earth space asteroids.
"While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller," stated Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Despite some interference from moonlight, 3122 Florence should be fairly easy to spot in even modest backyard telescopes," added Kelly Beatty, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine.
The last time Florence passed by Earth was in 1890 and according to NASA, the next time it will be close to the planet again in 2500.
Asteroid Florence will appear as a 9th magnitude star without causing any danger to Earth. The space rock will be passing by Earth on Friday, at 5.30 pm IST (8 am EST).You can watch the live webcast of asteroid Florence by clicking this link.
