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An asteroid with its own moon crosses the Earth this weekend. The Brocken, bearing the name of 1999 KW4, measures on average 1.2 km in diameter and travels at a speed of more than 125 000 km / h in space.
Earth is teeming with asteroids
The asteroid was discovered 20 years ago by the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology's sky monitoring project.
1999 KW4 is heavy enough to hold a moon. It surrounds it about two and a half kilometers and is about 450 meters in diameter. It is comparatively large, which is why 1999 KW4 is also called a double asteroid.
The closest approach to the Earth reaches the duo Saturday night with 8 million kilometers. It's about 13 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. But the meeting will not be visible to the naked eye.
NASA ranked KW4 among the "potentially dangerous" asteroids in 1999. This is because it is a so-called Erdbahnkreuzer. Its orbit around the Sun overlaps that of the Earth. The next time the celestial bodies meet in 2036.
Astronomers can not rule out the possibility of a collision with the Earth in the next thousand years. Because the asteroid is spinning very fast, it could become unstable under external influence. The gravitation of the earth could theoretically lead to a close encounter. If KW4 disbadociated in 1999, it would pose a threat to the Earth because of the many debris.
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