Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2024 HP close encounter: an image – 5 May 2024.
On 23 May 2024, the Potentially Hazardous Earth asteroid 2024 HP will have a relatively close, but obviously safe encounter with the Earth. It will come as close as 5.9 million of km, about 15 times the average lunar distance. We observed it on its way to us.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2024 HP: 5 May 2024.
The image above comes from a single 120-second exposure, remotely taken with the Celestron C14+Paramount ME+SBIG ST8-XME robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, so it looks like a sharp dot of light, indicated with a white arrow, while stars leave bright streaks on the background. A bright satellite trail is also visible.
At the imaging time, asteroid 2024 HP was at about 13.3 million of km from us and it was slowly approaching the Earth. This asteroid was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon Survey on 17 Apr. 2024.
This 160m – 350m large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 5.9 million of km, 15.4 times the average lunar distance) from us on 23 May 2024, at 17:01 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.
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