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NASA has warned that a hazardous asteroid is speeding towards Earth today. Is Earth in any danger?
Although most asteroids are found in a ring between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt, some have made their way towards Earth in the past. Some of these space rocks have even caused a major impact and even triggered an extinction-level event. An asteroid was responsible for triggering the extinction of dinosaurs when it crashed on Earth near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico more than 65 million years ago. NASA has now warned that another one is on its way. But does it put Earth in any danger?
Asteroid 2022 UM details
A 48 feet wide asteroid named Asteroid 2022 UM is expected to zoom past Earth today, October 18. The asteroid is already on its way towards Earth, travelling at a staggering speed of 38448 kilometers per hour. The Asteroid 2022 UM is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers. Remarkably, after today, this asteroid will make another close trip to Earth on February 12 next year!
Although this asteroid is not expected to collide with Earth, a slight deviation in its trajectory due to the Earth’s gravitational pull can send the asteroid hurtling towards Earth for an impact. Though you should not be worried as NASA already has a plan in motion to engage in planetary defense to protect the planet against rogue asteroids with the help of its DART Mission.
More about DART Mission
NASA’s first attempt at planetary defense against potentially world-ending asteroids was a success, the space agency has revealed. The aim of the Double Asteroid Detection Test or DART test was to smash a spacecraft into the Dimorphos asteroid to deflect it away from its path. According to NASA, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit the larger asteroid Didymos. Astronomers studied the collision data using various telescopes and revealed that the orbit time was reduced by almost 32 minutes.
The studies were conducted with the help of various images captured by the spacecraft’s camera named cubeSAT LICIACube which is made up of two key components, LUKE (LICIACube Unit Key Explorer) and LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid), both of which captured key data from the collision.
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