Large Asteroid pass-by on September 1

Asteroid Florence will approach Earth on September 1 2017. Florence is among the largest near-Earth asteroids. Spitzer Space Telescope gauged it's size at 4 400 meters.

According to the hypothesis, known as the Alvarez hypothesis the mass extinction of the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth. And the likely size of it was just above 10 km. The impact result is still visible underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Chicxulub crater is more than 180 kilometers (110 miles) in diameter and 20 km (12 mi) in depth.

But no worries, we are safe. The distance at the closest point will be 7 million kilometers, which is about 18 Earth-Moon distances.

Why is it special?

"While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller. Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began."

This close encounter provides an opportunity for Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to study this asteroid up close. It used to be the largest single-aperture telescope and the resulting radar images cand reveal surface details as small as about 10 meters (from distance of 7 000 000 000 meters!).

Florence will brighten to ninth magnitude in late August and early September, when it will be visible in small telescopes for several nights as it moves through the constellations Piscis Austrinus, Capricornus, Aquarius and Delphinus. It will be slightly less visible than Neptune, so you can use your binoculars to spot it at the night sky.

If you are a fan of asteroid Florence, don't miss your chance. The 2017 encounter is the closest by this asteroid since 1890 and the closest it will ever be until after 2500.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects can be found at:

Huge thanks to NASA and wikipedia for providing informations.