Eros Passes Andromeda: Rare Celestial Event Imminent
The near-Earth asteroid Eros will pass by the galaxy Andromeda this evening. The rare event will be streamed live.
The near-Earth asteroid Eros will be visible tonight.
(Image: NASA)
On the evening of November 30, the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros will pass a few degrees away from the bright core of the Andromeda galaxy. The Virtual Telescope Project and the Asteroid Foundation will broadcast this impressive event live for viewers worldwide.
Eros, one of the largest and best-known near-Earth asteroids, will be bright enough to be observed with small telescopes when it flies past Earth at a distance of only 60 million kilometers, according to the Virtual Telescope Project. Its orbit brings it unusually close to the luminous center of Andromeda, the most famous galaxy outside the Milky Way. The result, according to the project, is a rare and extremely photogenic constellation of a nearby asteroid with the galaxy.
Eros Live Stream
The event is scheduled to start at 8:00 PM UTC, which corresponds to 9:00 PM German time. The proceedings can also be followed from 9:00 PM German time via the Virtual Telescope Project livestream.
Eros was discovered in 1898 as the first near-Earth asteroid. They orbit the sun not in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but in the inner planet region. With a length of 34 kilometers and a diameter of 11 kilometers, it is the second largest of these asteroids after Ganymede. Eros does not cross Earth's orbit, but Mars's. In 2001, a probe landed on an asteroid for the first time with NEAR Shoemaker. After landing, NEAR Shoemaker transmitted for days from the surface, successfully completing a mission.
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An asteroid is considered near-Earth if it approaches the sun to within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) on its orbit, with the distance between Earth and the sun being exactly one AU. A potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) approaches Earth's orbit to within 7.5 million kilometers (0.05 AU) and has a diameter of at least 140 meters. Currently, more than 40,000 near-Earth asteroids are known.
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