Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #497

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Asteroid Set To Fly By Earth Looks LikeIt IsWearingAFaceMask
An asteroid, esti- mated to be at least 1.5 kilome- ters wide, is set to fly by the Earth next week. The asteroid is nearly half the size of Mt Everest, and it has generated a huge buzz
online. According to new images from Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the asteroid looks like it is wearing a face mask.
According
to CNN, the aster- oid, called 52768 (1998 OR2), was first spotted in 1998. On April 29, it will pass within 3.9 million miles of Earth - which is 16 times the dis- tance between the Earth and the moon.
Recently, the
Arecibo Observatory snapped a radar image of the asteroid. The team of scientists and telescope operators at the
observatory, all working while wearing protective face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, likened the appearance of the asteroid to
themselves in a hilarious tweet.
"#TeamRadar and the @NAICobservator y staff are taking the proper safety
measures as we continue observa- tions. This week we have been observing near- Earth asteroid 1998 OR2, which looks like it's
wearing a mask!" they wrote while sharing the image of 1998 OR2 alongside their own pics.
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