Just in time for Halloween, a potentially hazardous asteroid is set to plummet past Earth.
The asteroid is just under the height of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 2,716 feet tall. It will fly past our planet at an average speed of 84,500 km/h, which is roughly the speed of sound.
Around six times the average distance between Earth and the moon will be reached by the asteroid on November 1. This is very close to the truth.
Why are comets and asteroids so strange?
NASA flags any space object that comes within 120 million miles of Earth as a "near-Earth object" and categorizes any large body as potentially hazardous. Once flagged, these potential threats are closely watched by astronomy, who study them with radar for any deviation from their predicted trajectory that could put them on a devastating collision course with Earth.
No danger, but newly-discovered asteroid 2022 RM4 will pass less than 6 lunar distances on November 1. Possibly as wide as 740 meters, it will brighten to mag 14.3, well within reach of backyard telescopes. @unistellar This is very close for an asteroid this size. #2022RM4 pic.twitter.com/Z8khblg3GqOctober 5, 2022
You can see more.
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) is an array of four telescopes that are able to perform a total Scan of the Entire Night Sky every 24 Hours.
More than 700 near- Earth asteroids and 66 comets have been spotted by ATLAS. There are two asteroids that hit Earth, the first exploding off the southern coast of Puerto Rico and the second crashing into the border of Africa. The asteroids did not cause any damage.
The trajectory of all the near-Earth objects has been estimated by NASA. According to NASA, there is no known danger from an asteroid collision for the next 100 years.
There are many ways to stop an asteroid.
Astronomers do not think they should stop looking. There are plenty of asteroid impacts in recent history that justify the continued vigilance.
A bowling ball-size meteorite exploded over Vermont in March of 2021. A meteorite that exploded in the atmosphere above the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk generated a blast roughly equal to around 400 to 500 kilotons of TNT. During the explosion, fireballs rained down over the city, damaging buildings, smashing windows and injuring many people.
Space agencies around the world are working on ways to prevent an asteroid from hitting us. The asteroid Dimorphos was altered by 32 minutes in the first test of Earth's planetary defense when the Double Asteroid Redirection Test was conducted.
It is in the early planning stages of an asteroid-redirect mission, according to China. The country hopes to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact by slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into it.
It was originally published on Live Science
All Rights Reserved © 2024
