Bus-sized asteroid will fly within the Moon’s orbit; Virtual Telescope Project to stream its path
Asteroid 2022 NF, approximately 22 feet in diameter, will come unusually close to Earth on Wednesday afternoon, passing within the Moon’s orbit. The asteroid, first detected on 4 July by the Pan-Starrs telescope at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii, will reach its nearest point of 55,300 miles from Earth on Thursday, 7 July.
The Virtual Telescope Project will host a livestream starting at 4 pm EDT on Wednesday, allowing viewers to track the asteroid’s journey. Although the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has not yet mapped its trajectory beyond 2022, though it’s known to orbit the Sun every 3.7 years.