A huge asteroid the size of a BUS will be very close to Earth today, and astronomers detected it only three DAYS ago
- The asteroid, called 2022 NF, measures between 5.4 and 12 meters in diameter
- It will reach 54,843.9 miles from our planet around 14:45 BST
- Experts only discovered the asteroid on July 4 using telescopes in Hawaii
For Shivali Best For Mailonline
Posted: 10:38, 7 July 2022 | Updated: 10:39, July 7, 2022
A huge asteroid the size of a London bus will be very close to Earth today, although it was only detected a few days ago.
The asteroid, called 2022 NF, will reach 54,843.9 miles from our planet around 14:45 BST, according to NASA.
To put it in perspective, this is just over a quarter of the distance from the Moon at its closest point to Earth, which is 225,623 miles away.
Fortunately, NASA calculations indicate that the huge space rock will pass safely through our planet, although the space agency has not ruled out the possibility of an asteroid collision in the near future.
The asteroid, called 2022 NF, will reach 54,843.9 miles from our planet around 14:45 BST, according to NASA (stock image)
What is a “potentially dangerous” asteroid?
A potentially dangerous asteroid (PHA) is an asteroid whose orbit is closer than 0.05 AU (about 7.5 million km) from Earth.
It is also at least 100 meters (300 feet) in diameter.
The International Astronomical Union claims there are about 1,500 potentially dangerous asteroids.
While they are not yet a risk to Earth, such a large asteroid has the potential to cause devastation if they landed on our planet, especially in heavily populated areas.
It is believed that one hits the Earth once every 200-300 years.
2022 NF was discovered using data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), a Hawaii-based camera and telescope system.
Despite making its closest approach to Earth today, surprisingly, the asteroid was only identified on July 4th.
Measurements indicate that the asteroid measures between 17.7 and 39.3 feet (5.4 and 12 meters) in diameter.
At the higher end of this estimate, 2022 NF is about the same size as the original Routemaster London bus!
During its next approach, the asteroid will travel at breakneck speeds of 24,606 miles / hour, about 12 times faster than a bullet.
While the chance of this asteroid hitting Earth is extremely low, NASA has not ruled out the possibility of an asteroid collision in the near future.
NASA discovers about 30 new “near-Earth objects” (NEOs) each week, and by early 2019 had discovered a total of more than 19,000 objects.
However, the space agency has warned that its NEO catalog is incomplete, meaning an unforeseen impact could occur at “any time.”
NASA explained: “Experts estimate that the impact of an object the size of what exploded on Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, about 55 feet (17 meters) in size, occurs once or twice. in the century.
2022 NF was discovered using panoramic survey telescope and rapid response system (Pan-STARRS) data, a Hawaii-based camera and telescope system
“The impacts of larger objects are expected to be much less frequent (on a scale from centuries to millennia).
“However, given the current incompleteness of the NEO catalog, an unpredictable impact, such as the Chelyabinsk event, could occur at any time.”
To help prepare for this impact, NASA recently launched its first “planetary defense” spacecraft to deflect an asteroid 6.8 million miles from Earth.
The $ 325 million (240 million pound) double asteroid redirection (DART) test mission was launched in November 2021 and will take 10 months to complete its nearly seven million mile space trip. deep.
The spacecraft will crash into the small asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, at 15,000 mph (24,100 km / h) in September 2022.
When the 1,210-pound spacecraft hits Dimorphos, the plan is to change the speed of the “moonlet” by a fraction of a percent, echoing the plot of Bruce Willis’ film “Armageddon.”
Although the 525-foot-wide space rock poses no danger to Earth, NASA wants to measure the altered orbit of the asteroid caused by the collision.
This “planetary defense” demonstration will inform future missions that could one day save Earth from a deadly impact of asteroids.
WHAT IS NASA’S DART MISSION?
DART will be the world’s first planetary defense test mission.
It heads for the small lunar asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger companion asteroid called Didymos.
When it arrives, it will intentionally crash into the asteroid to slightly change its orbit.
Although no asteroid poses a threat to Earth, the kinetic impact of DART will demonstrate that a spacecraft can navigate autonomously toward a target asteroid and impact it kinetically.
Then, using ground-based telescopes to measure the effects of the impact on the asteroid system, the mission will improve modeling and prediction capabilities to help us better prepare for a real asteroid threat if it ever discover.
DART will arrive in Dimorphos in October 2022, where it will deliberately crash into the asteroid at speeds of 15,000 mph. This collision will change the speed of Dimorphos in its orbit around Didymos by a fraction of one percent, changing the orbital period in several minutes.