HONOLULU — Asteroid 2024 MK, which was recently discovered by a University of Hawaii telescope, will pass close to Earth tonight. The asteroid will pass within the moon’s orbit, NASA and the European Space Agency orbit computations have its closest approach at 1:30 a.m. Hawaii time.
The asteroid measures about 575 feet — nearly two football fields — across. It will brighten to visual magnitude 8, which makes it a little too faint to see with the naked eye. However, it should be easily visible with binoculars or a small telescope. The best viewing time for Hawaii will be around 10 p.m. Look for it in the southern sky, to the southeast of the constellation Scorpius.
“2024 MK is a routine discovery for ATLAS, and while this object will not collide with Earth and poses no immediate danger, it shows that we can detect these objects prior to their close approach or collision with the Earth," said Larry Denneau, UH Institute for Astronomy astronomer and ATLAS co-principal investigator.
The asteroid was only recently discovered, on June 19, by the UH’s NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert Survey (ATLAS) telescope in Sutherland, South Africa. This telescope is one of four global telescopes in the ATLAS system.
The ATLAS system is the first line of defense in surveying for hazardous asteroids capable of monitoring the entire dark sky every 24 hours.
