Well maybe not to dangerous! The "potentially hazardous" asteroid will travel past Earth at 76,980 miles per hour. A plane flies at 575 miles per hour, which is pretty fast. The International Space Station flies at 17,100 miles per hour, which is very fast. And asteroid 2001 FO32 is about to fly past Earth at 76,980 miles per hour, which is unimaginably fast. We're talking 100 times the speed of sound.
The asteroid will likely be the largest and fastest near-Earth object to zoom by our planet this year, doing so on March 23 at 16:03 UTC (11:03 a.m. EST). Scientists estimate that it's between about half a mile and one mile in diameter, making it larger than approximately 97% of other known asteroids.
While 2001 FO32 has been designated a "potentially hazardous" asteroid by NASA, it's not going to collide with Earth this time around (or on its next five passes, which will happen every three to five decades). During this flyby, it'll be about 1.3 million miles from our planet, or about five times as far as the moon. By comparison, the closest asteroid that's ever-past Earth — or at least the closest one we've seen — did so at an altitude of just 1,830 miles, in August 2020. That one was relatively tiny — between 10 and 20 feet in diameter.
Since you don't have to worry about this asteroid wiping out life on Earth, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the show as it hurtles through our planetary neighborhood. Due to its size and speed, we might be able to see the asteroid's movement across the sky in real time — as long as we're looking through a telescope. Most asteroids are far smaller and slower, which means they appear stationary, like a star or planet, when looking at them through a lens. But to our eyes (aided by a telescope), 2001 FO32 might appear like a slower version of a plane at cruising altitude or the International Space Station in orbit.
Of course, we haven't discovered all the asteroids out there, so you never know what's lurking around the galaxy, just ask Will!
In the year 1997, Earth is suffering from massive overpopulation. Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, their children, Judy, Penny, Will and Major Don West are selected to go to the third planet in the Alpha Centauri star system to establish a colony so that other Earth people can settle there. They are to go there on a ship christened the Jupiter 2. However, Doctor Zachary Smith, an agent for an enemy government, is sent to sabotage the mission. He is successful in reprogramming the ship's robot, but in the process becomes trapped on the ship, and because of his excess weight, the ship and all on board become hopelessly lost and it now becomes a fight for survival as the crew tries to find their way back home.
