{"id":149961,"date":"2025-09-17T14:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149961\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T14:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:52:11","slug":"asteroid-2022-fa22-to-skim-past-earth-18-september-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149961\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid 2022 FA22 to skim past Earth, 18 September 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

An asteroid<\/a> that was predicted to have a small chance of impacting Earth in 2089 is set to skim past our planet tomorrow, 18 September 2025.<\/p>\n

Asteroid 2025 FA22 will pass by Earth safely on Thursday 07:41 UTC (09:41 CEST), but it will come just over twice as far away as the Moon.<\/p>\n

\"BiggestCredit: SciePro \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The asteroid is between 130 and 290 metres across and was discovered by the Pan-STARRS 2 telescope in March 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Artist'sArtist’s impression of an asteroid passing by close to Earth. Credit: Dotted Hippo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

When the orbit of 2025 FA22 was calculated, there was thought to be a small probability it might hit Earth in 2089.<\/p>\n

This, combined with its size, put it briefly at the top of the European Space Agency’s asteroid risk list.<\/p>\n

However, as was the case with asteroid 2024 YR4<\/a> earlier in 2025, an impact with Earth was eventually ruled out as astronomers carried out follow-up observations and refined its orbital trajectory.<\/p>\n

\"EuropeanEuropean Space Agency infographic on the close approach of asteroid 2025 FA22. Credit: ESA
\nA campaign to study 2022 FA22<\/p>\n

Despite the asteroid posing no risk to Earth, astronomers will use the opportunity to study this enormous space rock as it whizzes by our planet.<\/p>\n

The International Asteroid Warning Network<\/a> (IAWN) will observe 2025 FA22 as it makes its close pass.<\/p>\n

IAWN’s 2025 FA22 campaign is intended to test the network’s “ability to measure the orbit and physical characteristics of a large asteroid passing relatively close to Earth, and to coordinate collaboration and information sharing amongst its members,” the European Space Agency says.<\/p>\n

This campaign is currently active and will be until the end of October 2025.<\/p>\n

\"DiagramDiagram showing asteroid 2025 FA22’s orbit around the Sun. Earth’s orbit is in light blue; FA22’s orbit is in white. Credit: NASA JPL Small-Body Database Browser<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre will play an active role in the campaign.<\/p>\n

Astronomers will measure the asteroid’s position, motion and brightness \u2013 a study known as ‘astrometry’.<\/p>\n

And they will also examine how sunlight scatters off its surface, to learn more about its composition and texture \u2013 a study known as ‘polarimetry’.<\/p>\n

2025 FA22 poses no danger to Earth, but the study of asteroids like this can help inform how we might deflect any dangerous asteroids that do happen to be on a collision course with Earth.<\/p>\n

Watch asteroid 2025 FA22 online<\/p>\n

The Virtual Telescope Project is hosting a livestream of asteroid 2025 FA22’s close pass, and you can watch it below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An asteroid that was predicted to have a small chance of impacting Earth in 2089 is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-149961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}