The steroid the size of a football pitch that people panic? Do not sweat

[ad_1]

Although the European Space Agency (ESA) has placed the asteroid 2006QV89 on its risk list, there is no reason to sound the alarms for the moment.

First of all, it's probably not as big as you think. The object is about 40 meters in diameter, according to ESA. A football field is 48.5 meters wide and 109 meters long.

For comparison purposes, some of the other asteroids in the risk list are 900 and 375 meters in diameter.

The list of risks is probably more frightening than it seemss

The risk list may sound scary, but it simply means that ESA has calculated a non-zero impact probability.

According to ESA, this asteroid has 1 in 7,299 chance of hitting us. You are more likely to be killed by a firework display, which is a chance on 340 733.

The threshold for action is as follows: it is determined that an asteroid has 1 chance in 100 of impact with the Earth.

In addition to the QV89 2006, 869 other asteroids close to Earth are on the ESA Hazard List. And if we were to panic about each one of them, we would never do any work.

It's still far

2006QV89 is currently 4.2 million miles from us. If the asteroid hits the Earth, it will not be until 9 September 2019 at 7:03 am, ESA announced.

Space agencies prepare for the worldst

NASA, FEMA and other international groups, including ESA, have been training to know what to do if an asteroid lands on the planet we call home. They regularly organize impact exercises of objects close to the Earth.

In December, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission finally reached the asteroid Bennu. He will spend two years studying Bennu. Scientists hope to have more information on asteroids likely to have an impact on the Earth, as well as on the formation and evolution of the planet.

[ad_2]

Source link