On February 27, 2023, he discovered an asteroid called "2023 DW", and it soon became clear that this asteroid was worth following because it could pose a threat to Earth and collide with it in 2046.
And based on 46 observations of the asteroid within 3 days, astronomical calculations indicated that its orbit passes near the Earth’s orbit and is only 75 thousand km away from it, or one-fifth of the moon’s distance from us, which is considered a small distance.
The orbit is still inaccurate due to the lack of observations, and this means that the orbit may change and intersect with Earth's orbit with the increase in the number of observations of the asteroid, according to the director of the International Astronomy Center.
What increased the importance of following this asteroid is that the preliminary calculations indicated that the asteroid will pass near Earth on February 14, 2046, and it will be at a distance ranging from 1,500 km to 24 million km from the center of the Earth, and if the minimum distance is achieved, it is less than half The diameter of the Earth, which means that this asteroid will collide with it at that time, and current calculations indicate that the collision rate is very small and amounts to 0.0013 percent, and although it is small, it exists, and the inaccuracy of the orbit makes the subject worthy of attention and close monitoring of the asteroid.
It is noteworthy that the diameter of the asteroid is about 50 meters, so even if the collision occurred, the damage resulting from it would be limited and local, but it might be tangible. This asteroid rotates once around the sun every 271 days, and its last pass near the Earth was on February 18, when it was 9 million km away from it, and it was shining by approximately 19 magnitude.
The Astronomical Seal Observatory of the International Astronomy Center is participating with a group of international observatories in monitoring some asteroids that pose a threat to Earth, as part of a program supervised by the famous Catalina Observatory, and it should be noted that a number of experts saw this asteroid as worthy of directing the James Webb telescope. However, this was opposed by another team that saw that the time of the space telescope is more valuable than that, especially since the field is available for some ground-based observatories to monitor this asteroid and that there is plenty of time until the year 2046, they said.
However, the possibility of observing it from terrestrial observatories is not that easy, as it is a moving object, and it shines now at magnitude 19.8, and it is at a constant distance and dimming, which makes the possibility of observing it available to professional observatories located in dark places.
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