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.

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.