An asteroid larger than the Statue of Liberty will fly past Earth at 8:20 p.m. GMT on Christmas Day, according to data from NASA’s Center for Near Earth Studies.
The asteroid, dubbed 2014 SD224, will be astronomical units, or nearly 3 million miles, from Earth’s surface within 0.02019.
2014 SD224 is somewhere between 302 and 690 feet (92 to 210 meters) in diameter – meaning it could be more than twice the size of the Statue of Liberty (305 feet) or taller than Salisbury Cathedral (404 feet).
As 2014 SD224 flies past Earth, it will travel at a speed of 10 kilometers per second or more than 22,000 miles per hour – about 30 times the speed of sound.
Despite being about eight times farther away than the Moon, the asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object (NEO) and is tracked by the space agency.
The asteroid can be more than twice the size of the Statue of Liberty (30 meters) or Elizabeth Tower (better known as Big Ben) and larger than Salisbury Cathedral (120 meters)
Asteroid 2014 SD224 (also known as 501647) and its orbit in relation to the orbits of the planets in our solar system. Earth’s orbit is in light blue
Although 2014 SD224 – which can be tracked on the NASA website – is 3 million miles away, this is astronomically relatively close.
For this reason, 2014 SD224 is defined by NEO, although no damage is expected.
NEOs are an asteroid or comet whose orbit takes it into or through a zone between about 91 million and 121 million miles (195 million km) from the Sun, meaning that it is within about 30 million miles (50 million km) of its orbit. the earth can pass.
If the object is larger than 140 meters (460 feet), it is considered a potentially dangerous object (PHO).
“NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been pushed into orbit by the gravity of nearby planets, allowing them to penetrate the Earth’s environment,” NASA said.
Comets, composed mainly of water ice with embedded dust particles, originally formed in the cold outer planetary system, while most rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
“Scientific interest in comets and asteroids is largely due to their status as the relatively unaltered remnant of the solar system’s formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.”
According to publicly available NASA data, 24,629 NEOs were discovered on Tuesday.
It is estimated that there are about 25,000 Near Earth Objects (NEOs) larger than 460 feet (140 meters).
And there are also an estimated 1,000 NEOs larger than 3,280 feet (one kilometer), underscoring the need to keep an eye on these space rocks.
According to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program, Earth is hit by a rock the size of a football field every 5,000 years on average and an asteroid ending civilization every million years.
NEOs are an asteroid or comet whose orbit takes it into or through a zone between about 91 million and 121 million miles (195 million km) from the Sun, meaning that it is within about 30 million miles (50 million km) of its orbit. the earth can pass (stock image)
“ By constantly searching for asteroids, we ultimately expect to find the majority of the hundred meter scale asteroids over time, as they all pass our planet for many years or decades for a possible impact, ” said Paul Chodas, director at NASA. Center for Near Earth Studies, told Newsweek.
“We’ve already inventoried over 95 percent of the really big asteroids (1 kilometer or 0.62 miles in size and larger) and we know none of them have any chance of impacting the next century.”
Last month, it was revealed that an asteroid the size of a London bus missed Earth by just 240 miles (386 km) – on Friday 13
The space rock, dubbed ‘2020 VT4’, was not spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, until 15 hours after its closest approach.
Had it gotten much closer, the 16 to 33 feet (5 to 10 meters) wide body would have burned in the atmosphere over the South Pacific.
Its orbit brought it about the same distance from Earth as the International Space Station, making it the closest asteroid to have passed Earth so far.
Astronomers hunt for asteroids larger than 450 feet because they can cause ‘catastrophic damage’
Researchers have discovered most asteroids that are about a kilometer in size, but are now on the hunt for asteroids that are about 140 meters long – because they can cause catastrophic damage.
While no one knows when the next major impact will occur, scientists are under pressure to predict – and intercept – its arrival.
Artist’s impression depicted
‘Sooner or later we will have … a small or big impact,’ says Rolf Densing, head of the European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt.
It may not happen in our lifetime, he said, but “the risk of a devastating event hitting the Earth one day is very high.”
“There is not much we can do for the time being.”
Source: AFP