An Asteroid Is So Close To Earth That It’s Visible To The Naked Eye Asteroids Near Earth 2018
One of the biggest asteroids in our solar system has come so close to Earth that it is visible in the night sky with the naked eye.
The asteroid – known as 4 Vesta, or 'Vesta' – is so big and bright that it can be spotted in despite being 106 million miles away.
It is visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres, where it can be seen in the night sky close to Mars, Saturn and the Sagittarius constellation.
But there's no need to panic just yet. says the asteroid isn't coming any closer to Earth and there is no chance of it hitting our planet.
The asteroid, which measures more than 310 square miles (800,000 square kilometres) in size – 50 times wider than the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, will be visible in the night sky until July 16.
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One of the biggest asteroids in our solar system is visible in the night sky to the naked eye. Vesta (pictured) is so big and bright that it can be seen from Earth, despite being more than 100 million miles away
Vesta is named after the goddess of the hearth and household in Roman mythology.
The rock, one of the largest known to mankind, currently resides in the asteroid belt.
From Earth, the immense asteroid – which measures four times the size of the UK – will appear in the night sky as a dim yellow dot.
The asteroid is easy to spot compared to other space rocks in the same belt as its surface reflects more light than the moon.
To stargazers in the northern hemisphere, Vesta will appear beyond the northwest tip of the Sagittarius constellation.
Saturn and Mars will be nearby, with all visible to the naked eye from now until mid-July.
For those in the southern hemisphere, the mirror image is true – with the asteroid appearing south-westerly of the constellation.
The last time the asteroid was visible in the night sky was 2011.
To stargazers in the northern hemisphere, Vesta will appear beyond the northwest tip of the Sagittarius constellation, with Saturn and Mars nearby. This graphic shows its path from May to August
HOW CAN YOU TO SPOT THE 4 VESTA ASTEROID?
Vesta is one of the largest asteroid in the belt, second only to Ceres.
But despite not being the biggest, Vesta is by far the brightest rock in the belt.
For the coming weeks, the space rock will be visible to the naked eye.
To stargazers in the northern hemisphere, Vesta will appear beyond the northwest tip of the Sagittarius constellation.
Saturn and Mars will be nearby, with all visible to the naked eye from now until July 16.
For those in the southern hemisphere, the mirror image is true – with the asteroid appearing south-westerly of the constellation.
On July 16, the asteroid will retreat further into our Solar System and will no longer be observable with the unaided eye.
Vesta is the second largest chunk of rock orbiting in the asteroid belt, with Ceres being larger.
The latter was recently reclassified as a dwarf planet.
The asteroid belt is a ring of space debris that orbits around the sun and resides between Mars and Jupiter.
Most recently, Vesta came closer to our planet than it has in 20 years.
Vesta has a squished, slightly oval appearance.
The surface of the asteroid is filled with craters, similar to our moon, which are believed to have been caused by a large collision in the rock's formative years.
The largest creator spans 285 miles (460 km) in diameter.
It was explored in unprecedented detail by a Nasa mission, known as Dawn, which reached the asteroid in 2012.
After launching in 2007, Dawn explored both Ceres and Vesta as part of a £337 million ($446 million) Nasa project.
After several years of space flight to reach the distant objects, Dawn discovered that Vesta had a surprising amount of hydrogen on its surface.
WHAT IS NASA'S DAWN MISSION?
Dawn is a £337 million ($446 million) project from Nasa to explore both Vesta and Ceres – the two largest objects in the asteroid belt.
It was hoped the mission could offer insight into the formation of the Solar System.
After several years of space flight to reach the distant objects, the spacecraft arrived in 2012 and discovered that Vesta had a surprising amount of hydrogen on its surface.
It also found bright, reflective regions that may have been left over from its birth.
The Dawn spacecraft has returned many images of Ceres in the course of its mission.
'These images offer complementary perspective to the images generally obtained by imaging the surface directly beneath the spacecraft,' Nasa said.
In early June 2018, it sent back its first images for over a year, which revealed the crater-ridden surface of the dwarf planet Ceres.
Dawn is now in its final orbit of Ceres, which is less than 30 miles (50 kilometres) above the surface - 10 times closer than the spacecraft has ever been.
Dawn will collect gamma ray and neutron spectra, which help scientists understand variations in the chemical makeup of Ceres' uppermost layer.
That very low orbit also will garner some of Dawn's closest images yet.
4 Vesta (pictured) resides in the asteroid belt and is one of the largest known to mankind. It will appear in the night sky as a dim yellow dot and will vanish from view in mid July. The surface of it is similar to our moon, but it is famous for its squashed and slightly oval appearance
It also found bright, reflective regions that may have been left over from its birth.
'Our analysis finds this bright material originates from Vesta and has undergone little change since the formation of Vesta over 4 billion years ago,' said Jian-Yang Li, a Dawn participating scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Vesta is also known for having one of the tallest peaks ever seen by humans, a 13-mile (21-kilometre) high mountain that stands on its south pole.
'The south polar mountain is larger than the big island of Hawaii, the largest mountain on Earth, as measured from the ocean floor,' Dawn principle investigator Chris Russell was reported saying at a conference.
'It is almost as high as the highest mountain in the solar system, the shield volcano Olympus Mons on Mars.'
Olympus Mons soars about 15 miles (24 kilometres) above the surface of the red planet.
For reference, Earth's tallest peak, Mount Everest, is a mere 5.5 miles (8.8 km) tall.
Vesta was first discovered in 1807 and was named after the Roman goddess of the hearth and household, who is sister to Ceres – the largest asteroid in the belt, which measures 280 square miles more than Vesta.
This animation shows Ceres as seen by Nasa's Dawn spacecraft from its high-altitude mapping orbit at 913 miles (1,470 kilometers) above the surface. The colourful map overlaid at right shows variations in Ceres' gravity field measured by Dawn
WHAT IS THE DWARF PLANET CERES AND WHY IS NASA STUDYING IT?
Ceres is 590 miles (950 km) across and was discovered in 1801.
It is the closest dwarf planet to the sun and is located in the asteroid belt, making it the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system.
While it is the smallest of the known dwarf planets, it is the largest object in the asteroid belt.
It lies less than three times as far as Earth from the sun - close enough to feel the warmth of the star, allowing ice to melt and reform.
Nasa's Dawn spacecraft made its way to Ceres after leaving the asteroid Vesta in 2012.
There is high interest in the mission because Ceres is seen as being a record of the early solar system.
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