Levon Azizyan, director of the Center for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring, writes on his Facebook page:
Asteroid 2024 XN1, the size of a 10-story building, will fly past Earth on Christmas Eve, December 24.
The asteroid will fly 7.2 million kilometers from our planet. It will move at 23,726 kilometers per hour, close to the astronomical scale, but experts assure that a collision is impossible.
NASA and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Planetary Defense Systems spotted the asteroid on December 12.
Although the asteroid will approach the Earth at a distance of eighteen times, it is an entirely safe passage. The diameter of the space rock does not pose any danger to the planet. According to the ESA and NASA calculations, this asteroid cannot collide with the Earth and is not on the object list.
The asteroid will not be visible to amateur astronomers.
The small space rock 2013YB has a very low chance of hitting Earth on December 23. Less than 3 meters in diameter, this object will most likely burn up in the atmosphere, leaving only a bright fireball.
On the same day, but from the other side, the asteroid 2021 BA2, with a diameter of up to 70 meters, will fly above the Earth at a distance of 2.75 million kilometers. Despite its proximity, its passage also poses no threat to the planet.
