900-meter Asteroid Ryugu: What if this shockingly huge space rock strikes Earth?
Photo Credit: Unsplash Have you ever imagined the life-threatening situation that could be caused if the massive 900-metre Asteroid Ryugu collides with Earth?
Photo Credit: NASA The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent a spacecraft called Hayabusa2 on a mission to land on Asteroid Ryugu and collect its rock samples in 2014.
Photo Credit: Unsplash The spacecraft Hayabusa2 successfully completed its mission and returned back with a sample of rocks from Asteroid Ryugu in 2020.
Photo Credit: NASA Now, scientists are working to find the answer about what would happen if Asteroid Ryugu strikes Earth.
Photo Credit: Pixabay Usually when the estimations around the impact of an asteroid strike are calculated, only the speed and the angle of strike are used to make the calculation while one of the most important factors is ignored - asteroid composition.
Photo Credit: Unsplash As all the asteroids are not similar some are very different, for example Ryugu is a rubble-pile asteroid and not a rock-hard asteroid which means its collision impact will also be different from others.
Photo Credit: NASA Asteroid Ryugu is calculated to be 900-meter wide and as per NASA any asteroid that is 1 kilometre could be fatal if it collides with earth and could lead to global extinction.
Photo Credit: Unsplash “Hayabusa2 succeeded in an experiment in which two 1 kg [2.2 pounds] projectiles were launched at a speed of 2 km per sec [1.2 miles per sec] resulting in the formation of a crater approximately 20 meters [66 feet] in diameter," JAXA scientist told Space.com.
Photo Credit: Pixabay While it further added the cohesion strength of the rock was meant to be very, very low. The density is just a little higher than water with a very high porosity estimated.
Photo Credit: Pixabay So, what will happen if this Asteroid strikes Earth?
Photo Credit: Pixabay It is predicted that the Asteroid like Ryugu could never reach earth in a single piece and it is expected to break apart in lower atmosphere leading to a shower of small meteorites.
Photo Credit: Pixabay However, as per estimation, there is no near term threat of Asteroid Ryugu colliding with Earth.
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