NASA asteroid warning! Plane-sized asteroid headed for Earth today, 10-10-2022

NASA has issued a warning against an asteroid today. Does this space rock pose any danger to Earth?

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Oct 10 2022, 11:32 IST

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In Pics: Historic $300 mn NASA DART asteroid collision a success; 1st step to save Earth

DART mission — 2/5 After months of anticipation, this test took place during today’s early hours when the DART spacecraft sacrificed itself by colliding with Dimorphos asteroid at 7:14 p.m. EDT. According to NASA, Dimorphos is an asteroid moonlet just 530 feet in width and orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, nearly 5 times its size. (NASA)

3/5 NASA DART test was captured by a small companion satellite which followed the DART spacecraft to the target asteroid Dimorphos. The spacecraft’s camera is a cubeSAT called LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids). The cubeSAT is made up of two key components, LUKE (LICIACube Unit Key Explorer) and LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid), both of which capture key data from the collision. (Bloomberg)

4/5 European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft will fly to the asteroid to survey the aftermath of impact and gather information such as the size of impact crater, the mass of the asteroid and its make-up and internal structure using its CubeSAT satellite to conduct a radar probe of the asteroid after the collision (ESA)

NASA DART Mission — 5/5 Tech behind DART spacecraft - Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) along with Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real Time Navigation (SMART Nav) algorithms aboard the DART spacecraft allowed it to distinguish between the larger Didymos and its target Dimorphos, striking the asteroid with precision accuracy, according to NASA. (NASA )

Asteroid and Earth — Worried about the oncoming asteroid? Know what NASA said. (Pixabay)

The months of August and September have witnessed nearly 35 asteroid flybys each and October is set to match, if not surpass, that number. Two asteroids passed by the planet at extremely close distances just yesterday and NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that two more asteroids are set for close approaches with Earth today. One of them is nearly as big as an aircraft and is hurtling towards the planet at dangerous speed. Here's what NASA said about the asteroid.

Asteroid 2022 SE10

NASA has warned that an asteroid named 2022 SE10 is hurtling towards Earth today, October 10. The asteroid is nearly 89 feet wide, which is almost the size of a commercial aircraft! The asteroid will make its closest approach to the planet today at a distance of just 2.1 million kilometers. The menacing space rock is speeding towards the planet at nearly 39060 kilometers per hour. After today, the asteroid's next closest approach with Earth is expected to be on September 26, 2029, according to NASA.

These past months have seen a sudden increase in the frequency of asteroid flybys. However, people will be relieved to know that none of them will be any potentially “world-ending” asteroids. In fact, such an asteroid is not expected for at least a century or more.

Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) said, “A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don't show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.”

Did you know?

1. The total mass of all the asteroids in space combined is less than that of Earth's Moon.

2. There is an asteroid named after Mr. Spock – the Vulcan character of "Star Trek" fame.

3. More than 150 asteroids are known to have a small companion moon, or even two moons!

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First Published Date: 10 Oct, 11:31 IST