Massive 1200-feet wide asteroid is coming for the Earth, warns NASA | Tech News

Massive 1200-feet wide asteroid is coming for the Earth, warns NASA

According to NASA, a massive 1,200 feet-wide asteroid, which was discovered recently, is zooming towards the Earth at a very high speed. The asteroid is expected to make its closest approach tomorrow. Know the danger.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Aug 02 2022, 10:06 IST
NASA: DART Mission set to DEFLECT giant asteroid
Asteroids
1/5 Apocalyptic movies like Deep Impact, Armageddon and Don't Look Up have always explored the ‘What Ifs’ of world destruction. Now, NASA is set to defend the planet against a very similar threat that is posed by asteroids. (Pixabay)
Asteroids
2/5 The DART mission will cost a staggering $240 million. The aim of the mission is to smash a spacecraft into the Dimorphos asteroid to deflect it away from its path. While this asteroid in no way threatens Earth, the NASA asteroid mission is to carry out an experiment to gain greater knowledge as to what happens when a craft is crashed against a space rock. This knowledge will be used if an actual asteroid threatens to crash against the Earth. It will help avert an Armageddon on Earth and perhaps, even save humanity from extinction. (NASA)
Asteroids
3/5 According to Financial Times, chief scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, Andy Cheng, came up with the DART concept along with a senior researcher. Dr. Cheng said, “It feels very exciting — like a dream come true — for something we’ve been thinking about for 20 years to be actually happening." (Pixabay)
Asteroids
4/5 The DART mission has already sent the main spacecraft to space in November, 2021. It includes a satellite made by the Italian Space Agency. Another spacecraft is set to launch by 2026, to measure the impact. (NASA)
Asteroids
5/5 NASA said, "DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact." (Pixabay)
Asteroids
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Asteroid 2022 OE02 is a 1,200-feet wide asteroid and is speeding towards the Earth, reveals NASA. Find out if the asteroid poses a threat to our planet. (Pixabay)

Last week, Earth had two close encounters with large asteroids. The first asteroid was 400-feet wide whereas the second was 600-feet wide. However, now an asteroid is zooming towards our planet which makes these look like tiny pebbles. Making its closest approach tomorrow, August 3, this asteroid is a 1,200-feet wide gigantic space rock which is moving towards the Earth at an extremely high speed. For reference, this asteroid is as wide as three Statue of Liberty monuments put together. It can be an extremely scary scenario if it strikes the Earth. At its size, it will cause continental level of impact damage and the shockwaves and tectonic waves will impact the entire planet with earthquakes and tsunamis. So, read on to know if this asteroid will strike our planet or if the Earth will get lucky a third time in a row.

According to the NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) database, the 1,200-feet or 365-meters wide asteroid has been named 2022 OE02. The 2022 in its name is an indication of the fact that this asteroid was observed this year for the first time. In fact, the asteroid was observed only a few weeks ago. This creates a lot of unpredictability as there is not enough data on the space rock.

Gigantic asteroid to approach the Earth tomorrow

CNEOS has also revealed that the asteroid is moving at a speed of 1,15,872 kilometers per hour. At this moment, the asteroid is expected to come as close as 6.1 million kilometers close to the Earth. This may seem like a large distance but in astronomical terms, it won't take the asteroid long to cover the distance, if a deviation in its trajectory took place. However, as per current predictions, the asteroid is not likely to strike the Earth and a safe passage is expected.

To protect the Earth from any such future threats, NASA is conducting a DART mission, which will give it the capabilities of sending rockets to push an incoming asteroid slightly and change its trajectory to protect the planet.

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First Published Date: 02 Aug, 10:06 IST
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