390-Foot Asteroid Coming Close to Earth Tomorrow! Should we worry about it crashing? Check what NASA asteroid watch says.
As the US space agency NASA goes into an asteroid with its DART mission spacecraft on Sept. 26 to study how it affects an asteroid’s motion in space, a giant space rock is on its way to Earth. This asteroid will be terrifyingly close to our planet tomorrow. According to the NASA Asteroid Watch Dashboard, this asteroid called 2005 RX3 is 390 feet tall and will pass horribly close to Earth. In fact, it will come as close to Earth as 2.95 million miles. Does this asteroid pose a threat to Earth?
NASA is actively monitoring all near-Earth objects that will come relatively close to Earth. According to a predetermined criterion, NASA’s JPL says that any asteroid that approaches within 4.6 million miles of Earth and has a size greater than about 150 meters is called potentially dangerous objects. Therefore, this asteroid also falls under the category of “potentially dangerous objects”.
Although this asteroid will pass close to Earth tomorrow, there is always the danger that something will push it off course at the last minute, causing it to head straight for Earth. However, the chance of that happening is negligible.
Technology Behind Asteroid Tracking
We do get to hear her about NASA’s warnings regarding these potentially dangerous asteroids. But how does NASA constantly keep track of all asteroids, comets and other near-Earth objects? The space agency explains: “NEOs are characterized by the use of optical and radio telescopes to determine their size, shape, rotation and physical composition. Some of the most detailed characterization data is obtained for NEOs that approach Earth close enough to be observed with planetary radar conducted by radio telescopes at NASA’s Deep Space Network and the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.”
In short, some gambling technologies have been deployed at great expense to ensure that as many asteroids as possible are constantly monitored.
Did you know?
We are in constant danger of asteroids! NASA says 80 to 100 tons of material fall to Earth from space every day in the form of dust and tiny meteorites, which are basically the tiny fragments of asteroids. In the past 20 years, about 600 very small asteroids, measuring several meters in size, have been detected entering the Earth’s atmosphere and creating spectacular fireballs. Effects from larger objects are expected to be much less frequent (on the scale of centuries to millennia). However, given the current incompleteness of the NEO catalog, an unpredictable impact – such as the event in Chelyabinsk – could occur at any time.
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