A Massive Asteriod Will Fly Close To Earth This Christmas

A huge 1.5 mile asteroid will hurtle past Earth on Christmas Eve – flying past 28 times further out than the moon. But have no fear, this space rock won’t be the Grinch that annihilated Christmas.

It won’t be visible to the naked eye but those with telescopes will likely be able to spot the object.

The pass-by comes in conjunction with the first Christmas full moon since 1977, making it even more delightful for sky watchers over the holidays, and follows a recent asteroid fly-by, asteroid 2015 TB145, that occurred on Halloween night this year.

Some media outlets have reported that asteroid 163899’s Christmas Eve flyby has the potential to cause earthquakes, but those claims are false and misleading, according to Earthsky. It clocks in at about 1.25 miles long, and is travelling at about 17.5 miles/second.

The asteroid was discovered in 2003 by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search. Gizmodo writer George Dvorsky says the asteroid “kind of looks like a chicken finger or a pickle”. NASA says it poses no threat for at least 200 years.

Credit: Aricebo Observatory/NASA/NSF via EarthSky.

Despite the scientific evidence that the Christmas Eve asteroid is absolutely nothing to worry about, that hasn’t stopped some alarmist headline writers from suggesting that the asteroid is so massive, and coming so close, that it might trigger earthquakes here on Earth.

‘Even if 2003 SD220 were passing closer, it’s doubtful earthquakes would result. But as Lance Benner said in a Goldstone radar observations planning document, observation of the asteroid is particularly important because they will “provide an important preview for the encounter in 2018 when the asteroid will make a much closer approach”.