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Alert! Another asteroid is coming towards us at mind-boggling speed today! Know what NASA said about this speeding space rock.
According to NASA, asteroids are ancient space rocks, effectively rubble, left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most of them can be found within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Interaction with a planet’s gravitational field, especially Jupiter, can knock asteroids off their orbits and send them hurtling in all directions. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office keeps a check on these Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) for any potential collision with Earth and declares them as Potentially Hazardous Objects if they come within around 8 million kilometers of Earth.
Asteroid 2022 TS key details
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has red-flagged an asteroid named Asteroid 2022 TS due to its extremely close approach to the planet. The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth today, October 10, at a distance of just 887,000 kilometers. It is already on its way towards the planet travelling at a speed of nearly 59670 kilometers per hour!
According to theskylive.com, the distance of Asteroid 2022 TS from Earth is currently 1.1 million kilometers which is equivalent to 0.007355 Astronomical Units. Light takes 3.6701 seconds to travel from Asteroid 2022 TS and arrive to us.
An astronomical unit (AU, or au) is basically a unit of length equal to the average, or mean, distance between Earth and the Sun, that is, 149,597,870.7 kilometers.
NASA’s Asteroid-tracking tech
NASA currently has a NEO Observations Program in place to track, and characterize at least 90 percent of the NEOs that are 140 meters or larger in size.
The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) uses its Sentry impact-monitoring system to continuously perform long-term analysis of possible future orbits of hazardous asteroids. CNEOS also has a scout system in place which continuously monitors the sky for new Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) which might potentially pose a threat to Earth, even before they have been confirmed as new discoveries.
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