Asteroid Almost Got Our World, Scientists Didn’t Know a Thing
Last week the story of a massive asteroid almost reaching Earth left us in awe, same as the scientists. We think something like this couldn’t happen, but with all the NASA’s equipment, we were still in danger maybe because of their indifference?!
Scientists called it the ‘city killer’, a 427-foot-wide asteroid which came too close to Earth even than the moon, this week. The massive asteroid, now called 2019 OK, got within 45,000 miles of Earth as it passed. The asteroid came racing toward our planet at the incredible speed of almost 15 miles a second before flying past. However, the distance which the asteroid passed Earth is almost 20 % of the distance between the Earth and moon, meaning that is was a kind of a slight miss.
NASA explained how the asteroid could hit Earth with the force of many nuclear explosions and could cease the existence of many cities. Astronomers, however, stated the fact that they couldn’t see its approaching because the asteroid has perfectly placed its direction to come from the sun. While NASA and other companies have the technology to identify things like this, there is a small founding to identify every single thing. NASA accomplishes to identify less than one third of the main asteroids.
There are almost 20,000 near-Earth asteroids and they sometimes make their arrival too unexpected. In 2013, one smashed into Russia, causing accidents of about 1,600 people. But we still wonder, how something like this could be totally missed? Scientists from Brazil and the US observed it inly about a week ago, but long before they could have done anything to destroy it. However, they stated that if we will take the decision to use space ships to give the asteroid a bump, in order to send it far away from Earth.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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