An asteroid rushes to Earth. It could fall in September this year

However, ESA points out that the probability of an asteroidal impact is still very small. The list of risks is established by the Agency on the so-called Palermo scale, which measures the potential risks of impact. Scale values ​​below -2 indicate events for which there are no likely consequences.

Values ​​between -2 and 0 then reflect situations that require attention and monitoring. The current asteroid 2006 QV89, according to the Center for Near-Earth Objects Studies at the Palermo Scale, is -3.63.

You may have seen reports that a huge asteroid the size of a football field is heading towards Earth. Although the European Space Agency has placed asteroid 2006QV89 on its risk list, there is no reason to ring for the moment. https://t.co/Wi5rdHv7C2

– CNN International (@cnni) June 7, 2019

The asteroid has a diameter of about 40 meters, nine meters less than the football field. According to scientists, the 2006 QV8 asteroid has a probability of 0.014% (or 1 in 7000) that 9th September actually land on Earth. The probability is therefore very low.

Scientists estimate that the asteroid will fly to 6.8 million kilometers from the Earth. By way of comparison, the Moon is 384,400 kilometers from Earth.

The asteroid that crossed the Earth in May of this year has approached our planet at 4.8 million kilometers. NASA defines asteroids or asteroids as "near the Earth" when they reach 193.2 million kilometers from the Earth.

For the first time in 2006

2006 The QV89 was first sighted by scientists at the Catalina Sky Observatory in Arizona in 2006. It goes without saying that this is not the first time that it appears near of the earth. He came to Earth twice in the fifties, once in the sixties and seventies and twice in the eighties. Subsequently, in 2003 and 2006. According to scientists, the body will return to Earth in 2032.

Already in June of last year, NASA had released its National Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan to improve the Earth's ability to cope in advance with the various risks badociated with space bodies nearby. For example, the report also describes the threats of small asteroids, similar to the one that exploded in 2013 on the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The wave of pressure that followed, corresponding to 30 to 500 kilotons of TNT, threw the windows of thousands of buildings within a radius of 100 km and more than 1,100 wounded. At that time, it was a bus the size of an asteroid.

How to destroy an asteroid?

NASA, in collaboration with ESA and other organizations, regularly monitors the sky of space and monitors the movements of potentially dangerous objects. It focuses mainly on asteroids and comets whose flight paths could intersect with Earth's orbit.

In May of this year, they also conducted an intensive exercise to simulate the crash of the asteroid. It was to evaluate how scientists could respond to it. The asteroid finally managed to hijack the missile simulation, but some of them broke and exploded directly over New York.

The explosion would have the power of a nuclear explosion. Fortunately, in the simulation, it took 10 days for the asteroid to reach New York. So there was enough time to evacuate the city. It must be added that it was only a simulation during which certain conditions were greatly exaggerated.

In May, NASA also presented a real plan to destroy or divert a possible asteroid. The double asteroid redirection test (DART), which hits a small Didymos asteroid and is trying to change its orbit, is scheduled for September 2022.