Asteroid today: Terrifying ancient space rock speeding towards Earth!

In case you didn’t know, asteroids are ancient rubble left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. According to NASA, Asteroids can generally be spotted within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Interaction with a planet’s gravitational field, especially as large as Jupiter, can knock the asteroid off its orbit and send it 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 UY1 key details

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has red-flagged an asteroid named Asteroid 2022 UY1 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 6.8 million km. It is already on its way towards the planet travelling at a speed of nearly 33444 kilometers per hour!

According to the-sky.org, Asteroid 2022 UY1 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was discovered recently on October 18. This asteroid takes 1040 days to complete one trip around the Sun during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 449 million kilometers and nearest distance is 152 million 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.