Massive Asteroid Will Whiz By Earth In April
A space rock estimated to be between 1,1 and 2,5 miles broad will approach Earth on April 29. It’s not, luckily, expected to crash Earth or bring any harm to it at all. If it did such a thing, the massive asteroid, dubbed 52768 (1998 OR2), would’ve been large enough to cause worldwide effects, according to NASA. 52768 (1998 OR2) was detected for the first time back in 1998 and now is classified as a PHO (Potentially Hazardous Object). It will pass Earth within 3,908,791 miles, speeding at 19,461/hour.
Asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) is considered one of the most massive space objects to approach our planet within the following two months, but it’s not the biggest ever. The asteroid 3122 Florence (1981 ET3), which measured between two and a half and five and a half miles wide, holds the record, which passed Earth by and fortunately missed crashing with the planet Earth on September 1, 2017.
A massive asteroid is heading towards Earth
The space object will approach our planet again on September 2, 2057. Also, to detect NEOs (Near-Earth Objects) that could represent danger, NASA and other space agencies currently develop missions to examine near-Earth asteroids and most likely mitigate the chance of a crash. The observatory is situated in Chile, in the north-central region of the country, on the Cerro Pachon ridge. By finding out the orbit and the dimension of a space object, it will enable the forecast of NEOs.
This year, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will be available online, and it will turn on the finding of tens of thousands of every threatening massive asteroid. “It’s an exciting time for planetary defense because we are on the verge of an absolute flood of new observations that will allow us to track 10 times more asteroids than we’ve ever tracked before,” stated Ed Lu, the former NASA astronaut and the executive director of the Asteroid Institute.
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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