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On July 25 at around 3 a.m. (IST), a large asteroid is expected to fly safely over our planet. Named “2008 GO20”, the near-Earth asteroid could be about 200 meters long, more than a football field.
According to NASA estimates, it will pass in front of Earth at a speed of 8.2 km per second and will be about three to four million kilometers from our planet. It is almost eight to nine times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Frequent visitor
The last visit in 2008 of the GO20 was on June 20, 2008, and it is expected to fly again on July 25, 2034.
What are near-Earth objects?
According to NASA, near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets approaching Earth. The majority of these near-Earth objects are asteroids and are referred to as near-Earth asteroids (NEA). NEAs are divided into Atira, Aten, Apollo and Amor according to their distance and axes.
2008 GO20 is classified as Apollo NEO. The Apollos have an orbit close to that of our Earth and are also called Earth-crossers when they pass through Earth’s orbit. They are named after the asteroid Apollo from 1862.
Is the 2008 GO20 a potentially dangerous asteroid (PHA)?
Near-Earth asteroids that fly below 0.05 astronomical units or 7.5 million kilometers away are called potentially dangerous asteroids. Since 2008, GO20 will go to 0.02 to 0.03 off, it is a PHA. One astronomical unit is about 150 million km, roughly the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Is this a rare event?
No. According to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, on July 21, six near-Earth objects are expected to fly over the Earth at a distance of less than 0.05 AU.
After GO20’s visit in 2008 on July 24, NEOs named 2021 OF, 2020 BW12, and 2019 YM6 are expected to fly near Earth on July 26, 27, and 31, respectively.
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