Look up! An asteroid will be zooming past Earth on Christmas Eve

We should not forget that the space is giving us a lot of reasons to look up in the sky and observe the cosmic processes occurring there, during all of our preparations and celebrations related to Christmas. We will get to see an asteroid on our way on 24 December and we’ll also be watching up the first Christmas full moon in about 40 years. NASA predicts that we’re not supposed to see the next full moon to fall on Christmas until 2034.We don’t want to miss out watching both the events. We would not see the Asteroid 2003 SD220 around us till 2018. And we have to wait much longer to watch the full Moon and Christmas to line up again.

Mr Hanky, is that you? Asteroid 2003 SD220, as photographed by the Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF

Asteroid 2003 SD220 is nearly 11 Million km away from the Earth which is about 28 times farther to us then the Moon. Only professional astronomers will have the access to watch it through Telescopes. Astronomers have estimated that this Asteroid is 2 km in length and is travelling in space with the speed of 27 km/second. NASA advises us not to worry about its threat to Earth for the next couple of centuries so go ahead and celebrate almost 200s of Christmases in wildness. We also don’t have to be worried about reports about Asteroid 2003 SD220 that states its closest flyby can cause Earthquakes. In fact there is not such scientific evidence that an Asteroid’s flyby can cause any seismic activity, unless it collides with the Earth.

As we look up at the moon on such an occasion, it is worth remembering that its importance is beyond the celestial neighbor. The geological history of the Moon and the Earth are directly or indirectly linked together such that the Earth would be an entirely different planet without the Moon.

Don’t forget about the Moon this Christmas because it’s about to become a second home for our astronauts. So be grateful to it!