Huge space rock 2024 XN1, which is also dubbed as the ‘Christmas Eve asteroid’ and is the size of an aeroplane, will skim past Earth at 14,743 mph on 24 December, NASA Asteroid Watch dashboard has confirmed. The asteroid will make its closest approach at 02:56 am GMT on December 24. Measuring between 95 to 230 feet in diameter, scientists estimate that the asteroid carries a potential destructive force equivalent to 12 million tonnes of TNT.

Asteroid 2024 XN1 is the largest of the next five asteroids that will make close approaches to Earth. This massive space rock, measuring around 120 feet in diameter, is being closely monitored by NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard, which tracks asteroids and comets making relatively close passes by our planet.

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Although it is classified as a “near miss” in astronomical terms, experts assure that there is no risk of collision. The asteroid is expected to safely pass at a distance of approximately 4.48 million miles (7.21 million kilometers) from Earth-about 18 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

The asteroid was only first discovered on December 12 by NASA and the planetary defense systems of the European Space Agency. After taking its orbit into account, they labeled it a close approach, meaning it passed within 4.65 million miles or 7.5 million kilometers. While the asteroid poses no danger, its fly-by is an example of importance of ongoing efforts to observe near-Earth objects.

The Asteroid Watch dashboard provides details about each object’s closest approach, including the date, size, and distance from Earth. By hovering over each asteroid’s encounter date, users can see more information about its size and proximity to Earth.

While 2024 XN1 is the biggest of the upcoming asteroids, scientists assure that none of these objects pose any threat to Earth. The dashboard helps keep the public informed and highlights the importance of monitoring space rocks for potential future risks.

Earth’s moon will soon have a temporary junior companion, an apparent mini moon revolving around our planet for about two months. In a rare event, an asteroid will be captured by Earth’s gravity and will orbit the earth from September 29 to November 25 this year. 

The asteroid 2024 PT5 was spotted on August 7 using the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a NASA-funded asteroid impact early warning system. 

According to a report published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, the asteroid is not too big with a diameter of just 10 metre (33 feet). During its 53-day tenure around the earth, 2024 PT5 will not be able to make a full orbit, instead it will perform a horseshoe loop before breaking away from the earth’s gravitational pull. 

The RNAAS report, authored by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos, says that Earth has a tendency to capture asteroids and pull them into its orbit. These asteroids sometimes perform one or more full revolutions around our planet while other times, they break away from the earth’s elliptical path before completing an orbit.  

In 2006, an asteroid captured by Earth’s gravity revolved around it for a year from July 2006 to July 2007. However, the newly discovered 2024 PT5 seems to resemble the path of 2022 NX1, a temporary flyby that revolved around Earth in 1981 and 2022 without ever completing an orbit and will likely return to take another semi round in 2051.

While Earth may sometimes pull space junk into its orbit, the report says that 2024 PT5 is a natural object as “its short-term dynamical evolution closely resembles that of 2022 NX1, a confirmed natural object.” The report also indicates that its orbital properties resemble that of asteroids that come from the Arjuna asteroid belt.