A minor near-Earth asteroid will come very close to our planet on Thursday, January 26. At just 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometres) above the earth's crust and well inside the range of geosynchronous satellites, the asteroid, designated 2023 BU, will go past the southern point of South America at around 4:27 p.m. PST (7:27 p.m. EST).

There is zero chance that the asteroid will hit Earth. But even if it did, the 11.5 to 28 foot (3.5 to 8.5 metre) wide small asteroid would become a fireball and generally dissolve silently inside the atmosphere, with a portion of the larger material possibly falling as minor meteorites.

Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer who also discovered the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, made the asteroid discovery on Saturday, January 21, at his MARGO observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea. 

The Minor Planet Center (MPC), a renowned clearinghouse for the location measurements of minor celestial bodies, received more observations, and the information was instantly published to the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page. 

The MPC made the discovery after gathering enough observations. The orbit of 2023 BU has improved after three days thanks to dozens of observations from various observatories all around the world.

Who found out about the asteroid?

The Asteroid 2023 BU was found on January 21 by amateur astronaut Gennadiy Borisov. He did this from his MARGO observation deck in Nauchnye, Crimea. The interstellar meteor 2I/Borisov was also found by Borisov. He told the Minor Planet Centre point (MPC), which is known all over the world as a clearinghouse for measuring the positions of small celestial bodies, about his new observations.

 The information was then sent automatically to a Near-Earth Element Confirmation Page. After enough observations were made, the MPC made the discovery public. Within three days, dozens of observations had been made by observatories all over the world. This assisted astronomers in better figuring out the orbit of 2023 BU.

The information on the MPC confirmation page was analysed by NASA's Scout affect hazard assessment system, which quickly predicted that the asteroid would come close to hitting Earth. The Scout impact hazard assessment system is run by the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In a statement published by NASA, Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL, said that NASA's Scout quickly ruled out 2023 BU as just an impactor, but despite having very few observations, it was still able to predict that the asteroid would come very close to Earth. He also stated that this is one of the nearest times that a known object has ever come to Earth.

With NASA's 'Eyes on Asteroids,' you can follow the path of the asteroid.

Will the asteroid's orbit change after hitting Earth?

Due to Earth's gravity, nearby asteroids shift course. Asteroid 2023 BU will pass so close to the planet that its orbit will change. Before encountering Earth, the asteroid's circle of the Sun was circular and took 359 days.

After its January 27 encounter, the asteroid's orbit will be more elongated and move to approximately halfway among Earth's and Mars' orbits at its furthest point from the Sun. Then, the asteroid orbits every 425 days.