On the evening of Monday, March 14, an asteroid will hit the Earth. For comparison, the 13-metre-tall asteroid 2022 ES3 is twice the size of a bus or the size of a giraffe.

It is around 7:30 pm French time that asteroid 2022 ES3 will pass 7 million kilometers from our planet. A distance that represents about 19 times the distance separating Earth from the Moon. Although it doesn’t seem close at all on a human scale, things are quite different when viewed from space. For scientists, that distance is actually very close, explains the special site SPACE.com.

2022 ES3 was first observed on March 7 by Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA. After this, the organization shared all the information received about it in open access.

If observations are made too accurately, they are sometimes done too late and the object, asteroid or other, brushes against us with all discretion. The same was the case with another asteroid in November 2021.

An event that can be followed live

But this time, all the space lovers or just curious can follow 2022 ES3 Live. The Virtual Telescope Project, a community bringing together thousands of enthusiasts, has thus opened a dedicated YouTube page.

It remains only to hope that the clouds are not so present to be able to admire the spectacle. Finally, if some asteroids can cause significant damage when they hit Earth, this is not the case with 2022 ES3, which is not classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid. This is because it does not have enough diameter.

NASA considers a space rock dangerous if its diameter is equal to or greater than 150 meters and if its orbit takes it to less than 7.4 million kilometers from Earth. Let the distance be equal to about 19.5 times the distance from the Moon.