Sky gazers to get chance of seeing giant asteroid with naked eye

July seems to be a month full of spectacular sky events as sky gazers will be able to witness a giant asteroid passing close by Earth and that too with naked eye.

The giant asteroid named ‘4 Vesta’ or ‘Vesta’ is a really huge and bright asteroid, which makes it able to be spotted in the night skies with naked eye despite being 106 million miles away – comparatively ‘close’ in reference to space distances. Luckily, the asteroid also has zero chance in hitting Earth.

The giant asteroid measures over 800,000 square kilometers and can be seen in the night skies from June 29 until July 16-17. The asteroid will be visible in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres and will be seen close to Mars, Saturn and the Sagittarius constellation, reported Express.co.

Blood Moon next month to be the longest of the century

In simpler terms, the gigantic asteroid is four times the size of the UK and will be seen in the sky as a dim yellow dot, but will be easy to make out as compared to other space rocks since its surface reflects more light than the moon, according to Daily Mail.

Named after Roman goddess of home and family, filled with craters, the oval-shaped Vesta was last seen back in 2011 and also hasn’t come this close to our planet than it has in the past 20 years. NASA has described Vesta as ‘the second most massive body in the main asteroid belt’ and accounts for 9% of the total mass of all asteroids.

Moreover, next month sky gazer will also get to see a Blood Moon along with a total lunar eclipse, which will be the longest of the century. Our neighboring planet Mars will also appear 15 times closer to Earth than it has in the last 15 years.