Posted on 04/27/2022 9:41:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
Illustration of an asteroid. (NASA/JPL/Caltech)
A gigantic "potentially hazardous" asteroid that may be twice the size of the Empire State Building is set to zoom past Earth Thursday (April 28), according to NASA.
The asteroid, named 418135 (2008 AG33), has an estimated diameter between 1,150 and 2,560 feet (350 to 780 meters) and will break into Earth's orbit at a blistering 23,300 mph (37,400 km/h). Thankfully, the asteroid is expected to skim past our planet without any risk of impact.
At its closest point, the asteroid – traveling at more than 30 times the speed of sound – will come within about 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) of Earth, which is roughly eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
This may sound like a big gap, but by cosmic standards, it's actually a stone's throw away.
Related: We may finally know why spinning-top asteroid Ryugu has such a weird shape
NASA flags any space object that comes within 120 million miles (193 million km) of Earth as a "near-Earth object" and any fast-moving object within 4.65 million miles (7.5 million km) as "potentially hazardous".
Once the objects are flagged, astronomers closely monitor them, looking for any deviation from their predicted trajectory that could put them on a collision course with Earth.
The incoming space rock was first discovered on 12 January 2008, by asteroid surveyors at the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter observatory in Arizona and last zipped past Earth on 1 March 2015, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
The asteroid swings by our planet roughly every seven years, with the next close flyby predicted to come on 25 May 2029.
Thursday's asteroid might not even be the biggest space rock to hurtle past us in the coming weeks.
That title will likely go to 467460 (2006 JF42), which has an estimated diameter between 1,247 and 2,822 feet (380 to 860 m) and will be traveling at roughly 25,300 mph (40,700 km/h) when it passes us on 9 May 2022.
If astronomers ever do spy an asteroid flying straight at Earth, space agencies around the world are already working on ways to possibly deflect the object.
On 24 November 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft as a part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, which plans to redirect a nonhazardous asteroid by ramming it off course, Live Science previously reported.
China is also in the early planning stages of an asteroid-redirect mission. By slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu, the country says it would be able to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact with Earth, Live Science previously reported.
Don’t look up.
At its closest point, the asteroid – traveling at more than 30 times the speed of sound – will come within about 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) of Earth, which is roughly eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
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2M miles away is not exactly “skimming” the Earth. The Moon, which is about 1/3 the diameter of the Earth, is only 250,000 miles away.
Look up Apophos, 2029
The Webb Telescope is 1 million miles away, IIRC.............
Asked for a three minute egg at the diner.
They wanted me to pay in advance.
Speed limit is 65-70 except in Tx.
Rodney, izzat you?...................
It’s been over 12,000 years since the last ‘great big one’ hit... so relax. This is ‘global warming fear porn’ for folks who like astronomy...
Please just hit us its time for a reset anyways
Speaking of skimming will Biden get his ten %?
No.
George.
No.
George.
Oh, Sweet Meteor of Death. Please hit us. Smack dab anywhere.
120 million miles away , will we feel a breeze
Two million miles is not skim. Skim would be upper atmosphere or at the very least inside the moon’s orbit. There are asteroids that come much closer and they don’t skim. There are probably many asteroids that get within 2 million miles and we never see them even after they are long gone.
And another thing. We are imagining these things in two dimensions but there are three. An asteroid could cross in front of earth or behind earth or above or below. It’s hard to hit a target that is only 11000 miles in diameter. Geostationary is 25000 miles. The moon is 300000 miles. 2 million is not even a miss. It was never going to be a hit. Large meteor strikes happen on a time scale of hundreds of thousands of years.
Barringer Crater, Arizona.
Come, sweet asteroid. Smack a Blue City, center punch.
There is a plan in place in case of a severe asteroid strike: Preparation H.
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