The celestial surveillance carried out using dedicated ground based telescopes sometimes produces surprise discoveries of the so-called earth orbit crossing objects.
Numerical simulation of the visit of 2014 JO25, on April 19th 2017. The asteroid will be coming from the direction of the Sun.
© Nasa, JPL-Caltech
A member of the Apollo family (objects crossing the Earth’s orbit), "2014 JO25" has been classed as a " PHA" (Potentially hazardous asteroid, i.e. a potentially dangerous asteroid).
2014 JO25 takes a little less than 3 years to orbit the Sun. Its next passage as close as this one will take place in 500 years.
The unusual feature of this event is the size of the body : roughly 650 m. It is among the largest of the earth orbit crossing bodies. Ispeed is impressive : 120000 km/h (or 33 km/s).
The last passage of a body as large as this one dates back to 2004 and the next one will be in 2027.
With a magnitude between 10 and 11, it willl not be visible with the naked eye, but will nevertheless be observable with a small 20cm telescope. From France, it will be best to observe it during the night of Wednesday 20th of April, when its magnitude will be 10,7 ; at that time it will be in the constellation of Canes Venatici.
Professional amercian astronomers are planning to establish an observing network in order to better understand the physical properties of this object (size, shape) and its dynamical properties, i.e. its orbit around the Sun as well as when it will next return. The observations will be made using radar, in order to obtain images and its 3D shape.