Asteroid tracker: Asteroid big enough to BLOCK OUT STARS will pass TOMORROW
AN ASTEROID big enough to obscure parts of the starlit sky will dash past the Earth in the wee morning hours tomorrow, asteroid trackers have revealed.
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Asteroid Jurgenstock will fly past the Earth on Tuesday, February 19, briefly blotting out the brightest star in the sky. Seen from Earth, the asteroid will appear to hurtle directly in front of the binary star system of Sirius A. According to the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA), this will cause the star to momentarily vanish from sight. The moment of so-called occultation is expected to occur around 5.30am GMT (UTC) on Tuesday, or 10.30pm MST on Monday, February 18.
Such occultations are typically the perfect opportunity for astronomers to get a glimpse of an asteroid’s shape and size.
Sirius A is the brightest star of the night sky and is almost twice as bright as the next brightest star, Canopus.
The star is accompanied by a faint white dwarf, dubbed Sirius B, and is roughly twice the size of our Sun.
Astronomers believe the star is slowly hurtling toward our system, meaning it will gradually increase in brightness.
Tomorrow, however, the star will appear to blink in and out of existence as Asteroid Jurgenstock completes its lap around the Sun.
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David Dunham of IOTA, said in a statement: “If you are the lucky one to have the path go over your location, the star will fade over a period of several tenths of a second, probably will not disappear completely, and then will recover its full brightness over another several tenths of a second.
If you are the lucky one to have the path go over your location, the star will fade
“But it could be a shallow drop in brightness lasting perhaps only half a second, if you are near the edge of the path.
“The angular diameter of Sirius has been measured to be 0.0060”, so theoretically, with Jurgenstock’s diameter just a little more – 0.007” – at the actual centre of the shadow, the start of the fade to the recovery to full brilliance should take 1.8 seconds, with the star completely occulted for 0.2 seconds.
“But the asteroid may be a little larger or smaller than predicted, and it’s likely to be irregularly-shaped, so there is a good chance that even at the centre, the star will not completely disappear.”
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IOTA’s occultation maps show the brief moment of the asteroid’s passage will be mostly visible over open water in the Pacific Ocean.
However, a few lucky observers might be able to spot the incredible phenomenon from remote parts of Chile, Argentina and Panama.
IOTA said updated path calculations show Sirius A might also darken over parts of the Caribbean.
Asteroid Jurgenstock is a giant space rock estimated to measure an impressive 2.9 miles in diameter (4.7km).
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The asteroid was discovered in 1964 by astronomers at the Indiana University in Indiana, US.
Named after its founder, the German-Venezuelan astronomer Jürgen Stock, the asteroid is believed to orbit the Sun once every three years and seven months.
Based on data collected by US space agency NASA, the asteroid will make a close approach to the dwarf planet Iris in early July, 2041.
Thankfully, at no point will the space rock make a close approach to Earth.