Asteroid today: Terrifying space rock heading for Earth at 82332 kmph

An asteroid three times as fast as a hypersonic missile has been observed heading for Earth today. Know what NASA said.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Sep 27 2022, 11:08 IST
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NASA DART Mission in pics: Amazing Attack on Asteroid!
Asteroid and Earth
1/6 NASA with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission spacecraft is all set to collide with a non-hazardous asteroid called Dimorphos in order to test planetary defence on Monday, September 26. The learnings from this asteroid attack will be used to protect Earth from asteroids that are heading for a collision with our planet. According to NASA, this will be the world's first mission to deflect an asteroid in space. NASA’s DART, built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will demonstrate and test asteroid deflection by kinetic impactor. (Bloomberg)
Asteroid and Earth
2/6 Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos poses no threat to Earth. The DART spacecraft had recently got its first look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, Dimorphos. It is being said that in 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) will send a space probe to Dimorphos as part of the space mission HERA. The aim of the mission is to visually investigate the aftermath of the DART probe impact. (NASA )
Asteroid and Earth
3/6 When to watch: The live broadcast of the event will start on September 26 at 6 p.m., EDT. The spacecraft will impact its target asteroid at 7:14 p.m. EDT, while at 8:00 p.m. ET, the research organisation will host a post-impact press briefing. (AFP)
Asteroid and Earth
4/6 Where to watch: The historic collision can be watched live online as NASA will be broadcasting the same. NASA will broadcast the live coverage of DART’s impact with the asteroid Dimorphos on NASA TV and its several social media handles like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (AFP)
Asteroid and Earth
5/6 About asteroids: According to NASA, More than 100 tons of dust and sand sized particles are bombarded towards Earth everyday. While, about once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits Earth's atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface. Every 2,000 years or so, a meteoroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage to the area. Only once every few million years, an object large enough to threaten Earth's civilization comes along. Impact craters on Earth, the moon and other planetary bodies are evidence of these occurrences. (AP)
Asteroid and Earth
6/6 Space rocks smaller than about 25 meters (about 82 feet) will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere and cause little or no damage. By comparison, asteroids that populate the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and pose no threat to Earth, can be as big as 940 kilometers (about 583 miles) across. (MINT_PRINT)
Asteroid and Earth
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NASA warns of Asteroid 2022 SD10 heading for Earth. Here’s what the space agency said. (Pixabay)

Nasa defines asteroids as rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most of them can be found orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt. Asteroids come in all shapes and sizes, with the largest being nearly 530 kilometers in diameter called Vesta. Earth is being bombarded with asteroids this year. In this month alone there have already been more than nearly 30 asteroid flybys. Now, another asteroid is on its way, NASA has warned.

Asteroid 2022 SD10 heading for Earth at dangerous speed

A 40 feet wide asteroid named Asteroid 2022 SD10 is expected to fly past Earth closely today, September 27. The asteroid is already on its way towards Earth, travelling at a staggering speed of 82,332 kilometers per hour. Nasa has issued a warning classifying the Asteroid 2022 SD10 as a “Potentially Hazardous Object” due to the close proximity with which it will pass by Earth. Although it will not collide with Earth, a slight deviation in its trajectory due to the Earth's gravitational pull can send it towards Earth for an impact.

The Asteroid 2022 SD10 is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today at a distance of just 1.1 million kilometers.

According to theskylive.com, Asteroid 2022 SD10 is currently 1,568,178 kilometers away from us, equivalent to 0.010483 Astronomical Units. Light takes 5.2309 seconds to travel from Asteroid (NEO) 2022 SD10 and arrive on Earth. An astronomical unit (AU, or au) is basically a unit of length equal to the average, or mean, distance between Earth and the Sun, that is, 149,597,870.7 kilometers.

Asteroid impact sites identified using CSI techniques

A team of international researchers identified the impact sites of asteroids using CSI crime solving techniques. According to the research, only 30 percent of Holocene asteroid impact craters have been identified in the last 11,650 years. The researchers used charcoal samples from crater sites to identify the asteroid impact.

A recent article published in Geological Society of America's journal Geology explains that the bodies of organisms which died due to the asteroid impact can be analyzed to find out the extent of damage caused by the asteroid impact. By studying how an organism died, researchers can find out the conditions in which they were killed, which reflects the properties of an asteroid.

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First Published Date: 27 Sep, 10:36 IST
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