Eyes to the sky, once again, for a space show. Friday 9 May, at 13:02 Italian, the potentially dangerous asteroid (612356) 2002 JX8, will pass “near” to the earth. The celestial body, of an estimated diameter between 230 and 510 meters, will pass through around 4.2 million km, almost 11 times the average distance of the moon.
The 2002 JX8 asteroid arrives, when and how to see it
A passage in complete safety therefore, which, however, will allow to resume even with small telescopes an object of that specific category with significant dimensions. It is classified as potentially dangerous any asteroid having a diameter greater than 140 meters and capable of approaching the terrestrial orbit within 7.5 million km. This does not mean, therefore, that the celestial body in question is necessarily destined to hit the earth, but only that it deserves an eye.
In the next few days, until the date of the Flyby, it will cross the constellations of the swarm, the dragon, the minor and the giraffe. Just on 8 and 9 May the asteroid will be less than 10 degrees from the polar star, therefore above the horizon all night. Its brightness will be around the magnitude 16.1, therefore it will be photographed with tools with a diameter of only 100-150mm, while to be visually observed, that is, by directly approaching the eye to the octopus of a telescope, tools of considerable opening are needed.
In recent days, the 2002 JX8 asteroid has been photographed through one of the robotic tools part of the Virtual Telescope Project installed in Manciano (Grosseto), under the less suffering from the light pollution of peninsular Italy. For those who could not observe the asteroid with their own tools, on the evening of May 8, at 10.30 pm, the Virtual Telescope Project will show the 2002 JX8 passage on its website on its website: to access the event edited by the astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, totally free, just access the following link.