You could assume asteroids are merely floating rocks in house and whereas it might appear so because of their look, it is not fairly the case. These house rocks may be categorised into 3 varieties primarily based on their structural composition. Essentially the most generally discovered asteroids are S-type, that are made up of carbon-rich substances. However, S-type asteroids are made up primarily of silicate minerals and are much less frequent. M-type asteroids are the least prevalent and they’re primarily composed of metallic.
Regardless that there are thousands and thousands of asteroids in our photo voltaic system, solely a handful of them have been noticed, with the present asteroid rely being roughly 1,298,148. One in all these asteroids is heading in the direction of Earth for shut method quickly, NASA has revealed.
Asteroid 2023 LG2
The asteroid that can come near Earth has been designated Asteroid 2023 LG2 by NASA’s Heart for Close to-Earth Object Research (CNEOS). This house rock will make its closest method to Earth tomorrow, July 1, at a distance of about 2.1 million kilometers. Apparently, it’s speeding in the direction of Earth at a velocity of about 9933 kilometers per hour, which is simply shy of the velocity of a hypersonic ballistic missile.
It belongs to the Aten group of asteroids, that are Earth-crossing Close to-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) with semi-major axes smaller than Earth’s. They’re named after the asteroid 2062 Aten and the primary of its form was found by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory on January 7, 1976.
Is Asteroid 2023 LG2 harmful?
In line with NASA information, the asteroid is 80 ft vast, which may be in comparison with a small plane. Though earlier research have revealed that it will take a 96-kilometer-wide asteroid to fully wipe out life on Earth, a earlier encounter with a 59 ft asteroid precipitated injury to 8000 buildings and left 1000 folks injured.
It signifies that these shut calls with asteroids spotlight the significance of continued technological growth in asteroid detection and monitoring packages. This may assist to make sure the protection of our planet from the potential impression of those house rocks, like NASA’s DART.
