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28 Septembre 2004

Asteroid Toutatis - a permanent resident of the Solar System (Credit: NASA)

An asteroid named for a Celtic god of war will come as close to Earth this week as it has since 1353.

The space rock known as Toutatis will come on Wednesday within 960,000 miles of Earth, relatively close by cosmic standards, Astronomy Magazine said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

Toutatis poses no danger to Earth. However, if it did hit our planet, it would create a blast with the energy equivalent to 1 million ton of TNT.

Measuring about 3 miles by 1.5 miles, Toutatis will speed by Earth at 22,000 miles per hour.

This asteroid makes a roughly four-year trip around the sun that swings from just inside Earth's orbit to outside the orbit of Mars. Because both Earth and Toutatis are in continual motion, the distance between them at closest approach every four years varies greatly.

On Wednesday, Toutatis will be 250 times brighter than it was two months ago, but it will still be 16 times dimmer than the faintest stars that can be seen with unaided eyes.

Normally, Toutatis could be spied with binoculars from locations away from city lights, but the brightness of the nearly-full Moon on Wednesday will make the asteroid harder to see.

No observer in or north of such cities as Denver and Pittsburgh in the United States, or Rome or Madrid in Europe or Beijing in Asia will be able to see Toutatis on Wednesday because it will be below the horizon. Those at these northern latitudes might catch a glimpse of Toutatis on Tuesday, before its closest approach.

Observers in the Southern Hemisphere who use 6-inch or larger telescopes will be able to follow the asteroid's fast motion across the sky on Wednesday: it should move at the rate of almost three Moon widths in an hour.

At close approach, Toutatis will be in front of the stars of the southern constellation Centaurus.

Source: NASA