The last asteroid that crossed closest to Earth occurred on December 16, 1974. At that time the object is only 5 million miles from Earth. However, at that time humans had not realized it because the discovery was first revealed in 1983. "With a diameter of about 5 km, Phaethon is the third largest asteroid that passes near Earth and classified as a potential danger," said NASA spokesman, quoted by the Daily Mail.
As the asteroid passes by, NASA hopes to capture the details of the object image. According to NASA's account, Phaethon in 0.069 au Earth on December 16, 2017, where it would be a target of powerful radar images at Goldstone and Arecibo. "This will be the best opportunity to date for radar observations on this asteroid, and we hope to take a detailed picture of the picture will be amazing in the three-dimensional detail model," NASA said.
The asteroid will return the next pass in 2093 when only within 1.8 million miles or 2.9 million km from Earth. Earlier this month, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Konigsberg, Russia, released a video tracking the Phaethon line. The video explains that the unusual orbit of the asteroid will make it by far the closest of the sun than any other known asteroid.
3200 Phaethon is a source of puzzles for researchers because it features asteroids and comets at once. In one of the nearer Earth movements, the researchers detected dust from the spacecraft that created a melting ice tail as seen in most comets.
However, Phaethon's orbit is in the region between Mars and Jupiter where most of the asteroids come from. "It appears that this asteroid is a very large object, but as it moves near the sun it causes some parts of the asteroid to break into small parts to form this meteor shower," said Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.
If so, the asteroid itself could be the remainder of the comet's core. Thus affirmation Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University. The institute also mentions that the asteroid has a very long orbital path that sometimes approaches the sun, closer than Mercury and sometimes moves farther than Mars.
In the world of astronomy, a distance of 6.4 million miles from Earth is very close. The question that then arises is, how is the possibility of a very large asteroid going to hit Earth? The answer of astronomers is not often, at least during our lifetime. "No object that has been identified is known to hit Earth," said Dr. Amy Mainzer, astronomer and asteroid expert at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, speaking to NBC News.
He explained, astronomers have found most of the asteroids that pass near the Earth, with a diameter of more than 1 km. All of those asteroids are not potential threats to hit Bumi. However, most of it is certainly not all asteroids.
Another expert, Dr. Paul Chodas, manager of the Near Earth Object Study Center at JPL, explains that asteroid hunters think they've found about 95% of large asteroids.
