Two giant asteroids will cross Earth within the subsequent two weeks, with one measuring as much as 426 ft in diameter and the opposite 656 ft—comparable in measurement to historic Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, which is 455 ft tall.
The first, smaller asteroid will cross by Earth on September 25 at a distance of three.6 million miles, in accordance with NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks and predicts asteroids and comets that may come near Earth. The second bigger asteroid will fly by on September 29 at a more in-depth distance of 1.78 million miles.
For perspective, the space to the moon from Earth is 238,900 miles.
These two asteroids, named 2020 RO and 2020 PM7, are the most important to cross Earth over the subsequent two weeks.
Between Friday and October 2, 21 asteroids will cross by Earth. Three are on account of cross Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday. The closest encounter over the subsequent 14 days can be 2020 RA6, which is 121 ft broad and can cross Earth on Friday at a distance of 324,000 miles.
According to NASA, virtually a million asteroids have been recognized. Since its Near Earth Object (NEO) program was launched in 1998, the house company has discovered greater than 90 p.c of the asteroids are bigger than 3,200 ft broad, with “a large fraction” of these over 460 ft.
The company works to characterize NEOs and to evaluate impression threat and plan planetary protection methods in case of a possible collision. While NASA and different house businesses around the globe have charted most of the asteroids that cross Earth, there are nonetheless many which can be unknown.
This was made obvious final summer time, when an asteroid the scale of a soccer area handed our planet with little or no warning. The asteroid, named 2019 OK, got here inside 40,400 miles of Earth on July 24—the identical day it was found by astronomers. Researchers later charted the asteroids path and located this could be the closest encounter we might have with 2019 OK for the subsequent 200 years.
Earth is hit by about 100 tons of mud and particles day-after-day. A rock the scale of a soccer area hits the planet roughly as soon as each 2,000 years.
The possibilities of a big impression occasion are very low. It is estimated that an asteroid measuring 3,200 ft hits Earth, on common, as soon as each 600,000 years, in accordance with MIT.
The largest asteroid to cross Earth within the subsequent 12 months will make its shut method on March 21, 2021. It is as much as one mile broad and can cross by at a distance of round 1.2 million miles.
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