NASA Asteroid WARNING: Three Giant Space Rocks Scrap the Earth TODAY HUI | Science | New



[ad_1]

Two asteroids have already passed the Earth and the third will fly late in the evening, just before midnight around 23:44 (Paris time).

The first space rock, called the 2018 RM7 asteroid, reached its nearest distance from Earth around 6:17 am (Paris time) in the morning.

NASA estimates that the RM7 asteroid has arrived at 2.78 lunar distances from the planet, nearly three times the distance to the Moon or 663,704.46 miles (1.06 million km).

The asteroid flew at a vertiginous speed of about 38,877.9 mph (17.38 km per second).

The US-based space agency estimates that the spatial rock measures between 20.6 and 14 m (6.3 m to 14 m).

The second of the trio of asteroids, the asteroid 2018 RK6, came closer to Earth around 11:35 BST (10:35 UT) but was much slower.

NASA calculated that the trajectory of RK6 was 2.41 lunar distances from the Earth or 576,326.01 miles (927,506.8 km).

The space rock passed much more slowly than its cousin RK7, reaching a relative speed of 14.226 mph (6.36 km / s).

Read more: The size of an asteroid of a village could break on the ground in 2028

NASA's Asteroid Warning: Giant Space Rock Above the Earth

NASA's Asteroid Warning: Three massive space rocks are passing over the planet today. (Image: GETTY)

NASA's Near Earth Approach Table shows that the asteroid is between 22.3 feet and 49.2 feet (6.8 to 15 meters).

According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the Pasadena Space Agency in California, the asteroid RK6 last visited Earth in December 2013 and December 2008.

In January 2016, the asteroid also flew over the planet Mars to Earth.

Fortunately for the Earth, NASA does not foresee any future close encounter with RK6.

Read more: Scientists push asteroids to Earth

The third asteroid to rock tonight will be the biggest of the three and NASA thinks it can be between 11 and 25 meters.

If Sentry detects potential impacts to an object, we add it to our online impact risk table.

Steve Chesley, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The high range of NASA's size estimate suggests that the space rock is twice as wide as the London double-decker bus is long.

The asteroid, called Asteroid 2018 RQ4, will pass the planet late tonight at 23:44 (Paris time).

The asteroid RQ4 will then make two more visits to Earth on December 24, 2022 and November 29, 2063.

Read more: An asteroid larger than St Paul's Cathedral

NASA's Asteroid Warning: Giant Space Rock Above the Earth

NASA Asteroid Warning: The largest of the three asteroids could measure 82 feet in diameter (Image: GETTY)

Astronomers who hope to see the giant rock tonight will be disappointed to learn that the asteroid will zoom at a distance of 4.85 million kilometers (4.565 million kilometers).

This incredibly large distance is about 11.87 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.

But as in the case of the two previous space rocks, the distance is sufficiently small within the limits of the solar system to guarantee the interest of NASA's asteroid trackers.

NASA has classified the three asteroids as near-Earth objects or near-Earth objects.

NEOs are asteroids and comets that are 50 million kilometers from Earth's orbit around the Sun.

NASA's Asteroid Warning: Giant Space Rock

NASA warning about the asteroid: six more asteroids will be coming very close to Earth this month (Image: GETTY)

If a space rock is large enough and close enough to Earth, NASA qualifies it as a potentially dangerous asteroid (PHA).

Steve Chesley, an asteroid researcher at JPL, said that these asteroids are tracked by the Sentry system of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

He said: "If Sentry discovers potential impacts to an object, we add it to our online impact risk chart and asteroid observers can then prioritize this object for further observation.

"The greater the number of measurements of the object's position over time, the more we can predict its future trajectory."

In September alone, six other senior executives will take a close approach from September 18 to September 24.

[ad_2]
Source link