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The record asteroid 2020 HQ will not soon forget its confrontation with Earth.
Early Sunday morning (August 16), the car-sized 2020 HQ zoomed in just 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) above the Indian Ocean, which nearest known flyover by an asteroid that did not end up hitting our planet.
Although 2020 HQ survived the encounter, its path in space was significantly altered, scientists said.
Related: Famous asteroid flyovers and close calls (infographic)
“It’s really cool to see a small asteroid come so close, because we can see the Earth’s gravity bend its course dramatically,” Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from NASA in Southern California, said in a press release. “Our calculations show that this asteroid was rotated about 45 degrees when it rolled over our planet.”
Researchers did not learn of the existence of 2020 HQ until the Zwicky Transient Facility, a prospecting telescope in southern California funded by the US National Science Foundation and NASA, captured an image of the asteroid moving away from Earth, six hours after the closest approach.
This image shows 2020 HQ as a blurry sequence – no surprise, given the space rock was soaring at around 29,000 mph (46,700 km / h). As fast as it is, it’s a bit slower than average for a near-Earth asteroid, Chodas said.
There are several million near-Earth asteroids there roughly the same size as 2020 HQ, which would be 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) wide. These tiny space rocks are very difficult to detect, but they pose no danger to life on Earth.
“If it [2020 QG] had in fact been on an impact trajectory, it would probably have become fireball as it ruptured in Earth’s atmosphere, which happens several times a year, ”NASA officials wrote in the same statement (fireballs are meteors that shine brighter than Venus in our skies) .
Large asteroids are a bit of a concern, however. For example, scientists believe that a 6 mile wide (10 km) space rock was found in dinosaurs when it crashed into Earth 66 million years ago.
NASA has found and tracked over 95% of the mountain-sized asteroids in Earth’s vicinity, and none of them land a risk of impact for the foreseeable future. The space agency is currently working on compiling an equally comprehensive catalog of near-Earth asteroids at least 140 meters wide, which would cause devastating regional damage if they struck.
Such work has practical applications beyond simply warning people of impending impact. With sufficient notice – at least a few years, preferably – mankind could deflect an incoming asteroid, experts say.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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