The asteroid known as the 2025 PM, about 50 meters in diameter, passes through Earth on August 17th at a distance roughly equivalent to the distance between Earth and the Moon.
“On August 17th, Asteroid 2025 PM passes at a distance of about one diameter in the lunar orbit from Earth. This is one of the closest approaches for objects of such size these days, and is therefore on the potentially dangerous list,” the laboratory said.
2025 PM has recently been one of the largest asteroids, over a million kilometers, near Earth. The passage of large objects at comparable distances is only expected once this year at the end of September.
The asteroid was detected on August 1st. The comet’s properties are not displayed, and preliminary data suggests it is a stone rock with no traces of volatiles. It is an asteroid classified by Apollo from a group of nearby asteroids, with orbits that intersect Earth’s orbits from the outside. The 2025 PM has a track duration of just over two years.
The asteroid will be closest to Earth at 9:03am GMT on August 17th. Calculations show that despite being within the Earth’s gravitational gravitation, the probability of “capture” is very low, and can only occur if an unexpected collision occurs with another object.
The lab reiterated that the Baringer Crater was born in Arizona, USA, which originated about 50,000 years ago from Earth, best known to Earth of comparable sized metstones.
MNA/