LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – An asteroid predicted to be the largest to fly past Earth this year will approach the planet closest on the first full day of spring, according to NASA.

But don’t worry, because there is “no danger” of it falling to earth, assures the space agency.

The asteroid, dubbed the 2001 FO32, will be within 1.25 million miles of our planet on March 21, NASA said in a statement.

While that’s roughly 5.25 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, it’s still considered close in astronomical terms. For this reason, the space rock has been classified by NASA as a “potentially dangerous asteroid”.

The earth is spinning faster than in 5 decades, say scientists

It is expected to be the largest asteroid zoomed from Earth in 2021, with a length comparable to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, EarthSky reports.

Astronomers have been tracking FO32 in 2001 since its discovery 20 years ago, according to Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We know the 2001 FO32 orbit,” Chodas said in the press release. “There’s no chance the asteroid will get closer than 1.25 million miles to Earth.”

In fact, according to NASA, there is no danger of an asteroid colliding with the planet in the centuries to come.

The near-Earth asteroid will fly by at about 77,000 miles per hour, faster than most that hit the planet. This is due to its “sharply inclined and elongated (or eccentric) orbit around the sun,” the agency said.

This diagram shows the elongated and inclined orbit of 2001 FO32 on its orbit around the sun (white ellipse). (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

The rocky body “like a skateboarder rolling down a half pipe” will pick up speed as it navigates further into the inner system, and according to Release it will only slow down after being thrown back into space. The asteroid then swings back into the solar system and towards the sun.

All in all, it will take 2001 FO32 about 810 days, or about 27 months, to complete orbit.

However, the asteroid will not come close to Earth again in another 31 years – until 2052 – if it passes at a distance of about 1.75 million miles.

So next weekend’s approach will offer astronomers a rare opportunity to better understand it, according to NASA. Some things you will be looking at are size, brightness, and composition.

“Little is known about this object at the moment, so the very close encounter provides an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid,” said Lance Benner, senior scientist at JPL, in the press release.

For example, he noted that “20 years of observations have shown that approximately 15% of near-Earth asteroids comparable in size to 2001 FO32 have a small moon.”

The asteroid will appear brightest in the southern sky as it approaches, meaning those in the southern hemisphere and the lower parts of the northern hemisphere have the best views, according to Chodas.

But it won’t be visible to the naked eye.

To see the asteroid, Chodas recommends using a medium-sized telescope with an aperture of at least 20 inches on the nights before March 21. But those trying to see it will likely still need starting cards to find it.

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[ Routes ]June 6, 2021 10:31 a.m. ET

From Winston Shek

Bamboo Airways applies for flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles

In a recent filing from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Bamboo Airways announced its intention to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Los Angeles and San Francisco from the third quarter of 2021 after previous reports on the airline’s plans to fly to San Francisco Francisco to start.

In April, AirlineGeeks reported that Bamboo Airways chairman Trinh Van Quyet plans to start flights to San Francisco in September, pending market conditions rebound.

“We will start operating charter flights to the US in July and aim to start commercial non-stop flights between Ho Chi Minh City and San Francisco in September with an initial frequency of three flights a week,” he said at the time .

According to VnExpress, Vietnam’s Department of Transportation completes the process of naming Bamboo Airways for its first charter flights to the United States. Bamboo Airways charters would likely serve as return flights for Vietnamese citizens looking to return home as non-essential travel to Vietnam is barred to everyone else. It will also meet important travel needs between the two countries such as: B. for Vietnamese students and relatives returning to the US. Currently, any indication of what the objectives or dates of this charter would be remains unseen.

In addition, the low-cost carrier finalized a preliminary schedule for flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles after receiving approval for the proposed flight times at the two slot-facilitated airports. Its preliminary schedule in San Francisco is arriving at 10 a.m. and departing at 1 p.m., departing from Ho Chi Minh City in the late morning or early afternoon and arriving in Ho Chi Minh City in the evening enables. In the meantime, the preliminary schedule for Los Angeles is a 9:30 a.m. arrival and a 12:30 p.m. departure, allowing for similar departures and arrivals to and from Ho Chi Minh City.

The flights are operated between four and seven times a week.

Bamboo Airways will use the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the route. The long-haul aircraft have two seat configurations, one with 294 seats with 26 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats and 247 economy seats and another with 292 seats with 30 business class seats, 36 premium economy seats and 226 economy seats.

In its application to the Department of Transportation, Bamboo Airways applied for the rights to flights to Seattle, New York and Dallas, with possible stopovers in Osaka and Nagoya, Japan and Taipei, Taiwan, and the rights to continue flights to Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Canada. All of these routes have been selected by the Vietnamese government. However, the airline does not have fifth freedom rights between the US and Japan and will fly non-stop to Los Angeles and San Francisco while the stopover request is pending.

In addition, Bamboo Airways plans to codeshare with a “large” US airline. In the case of codeshare with an airline, the Hanoi-based airline has the right to codeshare flights to 25 destinations in the USA: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Newark, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, St. Louis, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington DC, and Wichita.

In addition, Bamboo Airways has begun hiring staff for its San Francisco office, including a station manager in San Francisco, a positive sign of concrete service plans.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Bamboo Airways had announced plans for US services such as the use of an Airbus A380 over Taipei, but these were never realized. In addition, the airline had announced its intention to fly to the US by late 2020 or early 2021, but that never materialized.

Prior to the pandemic, the airline’s route network consisted of a sizeable domestic route network and flights to Japan, South Korea and Taipei, and planned to introduce flights to Prague, Czech Republic and Munich, Germany in 2020. Currently, in addition to US services, Bamboo Airways is proposing flights to Australia, the UK and additional flights to Europe before.

Currently, Vietnam Airlines plans to offer flights between Vietnam and the US from 2021, although it is unclear whether they will start these flights. In 2020, the airline repatriated Vietnamese citizens via San Francisco, Houston and Washington Dulles.

According to RoutesOnline, Saber data shows that O&D traffic from Vietnam to the US totaled 1.77 million passengers in 2019, including 300,300 passengers on the Ho Chi Minh to Los Angeles route and 198,000 passengers on the Ho Chi Minh to Los Angeles route San Francisco.

There are concerns about profitability given the demand numbers between the two destinations. In 2018, Vietnam Airlines CEO Doung Tri Thanh stated, “Vietnam Airlines could experience an average annual loss of $ 30 million in the first five years of operation if we open a direct route to the US.” 5 years.

Those losses could be suffered by Bamboo Airways as they launch their flight routes, a blow to their reported $ 13 million profit in 2020.

Ever since Winston was a toddler, he has always been fascinated by airplanes. From landing wide-body aircraft in Washington Dulles to traveling the world, Winston always kept his eyes on the sky. Winston began aviation photography in 2018 and now occasionally posts his photos on his Instagram account. He has previously written for a blog. In his spare time, Winston loves playing chess, recreational activities and watching sports. Winston plans to look into the future too looking to serve the aviation industry.

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