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NASA has warned that an asteroid is speeding towards Earth today. Know if it will impact Earth.
Nature has been bombarding Solar storms, thunderstorms, hurricanes on Earth these past few weeks. These natural phenomena have been relentless with each of them capable of causing serious damage. Asteroids have been a common sighting too with more than 40 asteroids flying by Earth closely in the last month alone. Now, NASA has warned that another asteroid is on its way. Could this asteroid impact Earth and cause major damage?
Key details about Asteroid 2022 UG
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for monitoring the skies and keeping a watch on various Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). If any NEO is at risk of Earth impact, it red flags and issues the alert. The same organisation has issued an alert about an asteroid named Asteroid 2022 UG which is headed straight for Earth today, October 20. According to NASA, the 63 feet wide asteroid will make its closest approach to the planet today at a distance of 1.3 million kilometers. It is hurtling towards Earth at a speed of 33192 kilometers per hour.
According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 UG belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was discovered recently on October 14. This asteroid takes 957 days to complete one trip around the Sun during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 430 million kilometers and nearest distance is 139 million kilometers.
Did you know?
NASA also has a new impact monitoring system in place which uses an algorithm called Sentry-II to calculate the impact risk of Near-Earth Objects. NASA also has a NEO Surveyor mission planned for launch in 2026 to gain even greater in-depth data using a new orbiter. The space agency can track the orbital path of the asteroid using this infrared data and can even predict its orbit years into the future. As of now, nearly 28,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered using various survey telescopes which track objects in the sky.
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