A amateur astronomer might be able catch a glimpse at an asteroid passing Earth at 43,000 mph tonight.
The asteroid, known as 7482 (1994 PC1), will make its closest approach to our planet at 21:51 GMT (16:51 EST) on Tuesday.
It measures 3,451 feet (1.052km) in circumference, which is larger than that of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s tallest building, is 2,722 feet high.
Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) will safely pass within 1.2 million miles of Earth — around five times farther away from the planet than the moon.
Tonight is the closest an asteroid has come to Earth since 1933 (when it was 699,900 miles from our planet).
According to EarthSky, 7482 (1994PC1) will not be visible to the naked eye, but amateur astronomers might be able see it through a backyard telescope in Pisces.
After its close approach on Tuesday, 7482 (1994 PC1) won’t be this close to Earth again until the year 2105, according to NASA JPL-Caltech’s Solar System Dynamics.
A massive asteroid that is more than twice as large as the Empire State Building in New York will pass within 1.2 Million Miles of Earth
An amateur astronomer may be able see an asteroid within the Pisces constellation with a simple backyard telescope
ASTEROID 7582 (1994 PC1)
Space rock 7482 (1994 PPC1) was discovered for the first time in 1994.
RH McNaught, who used the Siding observatory to find it in Australia, was able to spot it.
The Sun orbits it every 572 day, but the orbit is eccentric and takes it to approximately 0.9 to 1.5 AU.
One AU represents the distance between Earth’s surface and Sun’s.
It was only 699,000 kilometers from Earth when the last recorded approach was made in 1933.
Sun (yellow) · Earth (blue) · 1994 PC1 (magenta)
Asteroid #7482 (1994 PC1) is an object that orbits around the sun once every 1.5 years. This was found for the first times by RH McNaught in 1994, using the Siding Springs Observatory in New South Wales.
Astronomers know a lot about its orbit. It ranges between 0.9 AU and 1.8 AU. The distance between Earth’s surface and the sun is 1 AU.
This asteroid is common and stony S type. Astronomers have the opportunity to observe the surface of the asteroid and find out more about the ancient space rocks.
NASA and other agencies track over 28,000 asteroids in orbit around the Sun. Sometimes, they cross Earth’s orbit.
NASA claims that none of the asteroids known to have collided with Earth in the immediate future. However, there are other asteroids whose orbits aren’t yet known.
Asteroids and other space objects are being monitored by NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. The Center for Near Earth Object Studies (NASA) defines 7482 (1994PC1) as an asteroid and potentially dangerous object (NEO).
NEOs are an asteroid or comet whose orbit brings it into or through a zone between approximately 91 million and 121 million miles (195 million km) from the Sun, meaning that it can pass within about 30 million miles (50 million km) of Earth’s orbit.
The Sun is orbited by Asteroid 74282 (1994 PC1) every 1.5 years. Here is a diagram of its orbit relative to the other planets in our Solar System
SPACE ROCKS OF DIFFERENTTYPES
The following are some examples asteroid A large amount of rock that was left from the collisions and early Solar System. They are found between Mars and Jupiter within the Main Belt.
visit A rock that has been covered in methane, ice and other compounds. Their orbits lead them further from the Solar System.
Meteor This is what astronomers refer to as a flashing light in the atmosphere that occurs when debris starts burning up.
It is sometimes called a debris. meteoroid. Many of them are small enough to be vapourized in the atmosphere.
It is known as a meteoroid if it reaches Earth. Meteorite.
Asteroids and comets are the usual sources of meteoroids, meteoroids, and meteorites.
A potentially dangerous object (PHO) is one that is greater than 460 feet (1140 meters).
‘NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood,’ said NASA.
Composed of mostly water ice, embedded dust particles and other elements, comets were originally created in the outer planetary systems. Most of the rocky asteroids evolved in the inner solar system where they orbited Jupiter and Mars.
“The science of comets, asteroids and other remnants from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion year ago is what has attracted scientific attention to them.”
As of Tuesday, NASA data showed that there had been 27948 NEOs.
There are approximately 25,000 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), which can be larger than 460 feet (135 metres).
Additionally, there are approximately 1,000 NEOs that exceed 3280 feet (1 km), making it important to track these space rocks.
According to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program, Earth gets hit on average by a rock of football pitch size every 5,000 years and a civilisation-ending asteroid each one million years.
The Earth is safe from the space rock, 7482 (1994PC1)), as it travels at 43,000 mph, which is five times faster than the Moon.
WHAT IS NASA DART?
DART will become the first planet-wide defense test mission.
It will be heading toward the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos. This orbits Didymos, a bigger companion asteroid.
It will crash into an asteroid in order to change its orbit slightly once it reaches there.
Although neither an asteroid is a danger to Earth, DART will show that spacecrafts can independently navigate to target asteroid and impact it kinetically.
NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission in November to address the potential threat from asteroids.
DART was launched from SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It will be seen intentionally crash into an asteroid’s surface in October.
It will be heading toward the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos. This orbits Didymos, a bigger companion asteroid.
It will crash into an asteroid in order to change its orbit slightly once it reaches there.
Although neither an asteroid is threatening Earth, DART’s Kinetic Impact will show that spacecraft can independently navigate to target asteroid to impact it.
The mission uses Earth-based telescopes for measuring the impacts on the asteroid systems. It will also improve modeling and predictive capabilities, helping us to better prepare ourselves in case of an actual threat from an asteroid.
DART could be used to alter the trajectory of an asteroid before it strikes Earth.
DART and Dimorphos will be smashed into each other at 13.500mph (21.700km per hour) by DART. Here is Dimorphos compared to Rome’s Colosseum
NASA explained that even a slight nudge could make an enormous difference in the future location of the asteroid. The Earth would then not be on a collision path with it.
Scientists are always looking for asteroids, and they plot their routes to see if any of them could reach the planet.
“Although we don’t know of any asteroid currently on impact with Earth, it is known that there are a lot of nearby asteroids,” said Lindley Johnson (NASA’s planetary defense officer).
STUDY SAYS: DEFLECTING ASTEROID WILL REQUIRE “MULTIPLE BOUMPS”.
Experts believe that it could take multiple impacts of a large human-made device to deflect an asteroid like Bennu. It has a very small chance of striking Earth within a century.
Californian scientists are firing projectiles at meteorites, in order to replicate the best ways of changing the course of an asteroids so it doesn’t strike Earth.
According to the results so far, an asteroid like Bennu that is rich in carbon could need several small bumps to charge its course.
NASA has revealed that Bennu is 3/3 of a mile in diameter and may be able to reach Earth slightly sooner than originally thought.
The space agency upgraded the risk of Bennu impacting Earth at some point over the next 300 years to one in 1,750.
Bennu also has a one-in-2,700 chance of hitting Earth on the afternoon of September 24, 2182, according to the NASA study.
Since the 1960s scientists have been trying to prevent an asteroid ever striking Earth. However, previous attempts have tended to involve theories about how to break the cosmic object down into many thousands.
This is a problem because these fragments could zoom toward Earth, making them almost as hazardous and life-threatening as the original asteroid.
An alternative approach called kinetic impacts deflection (KID) involves firing something into the space which gently kicks an asteroid off course away from Earth but keeps it intact.
Recent KID efforts were outlined at the 84th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society held in Chicago and led by Dr George Flynn, a physicist at State University of New York, Plattsburgh.
In conversation with The New York Times, Dr Flynn stated that “you might need to use multiple impacts.” ‘It [Bennu]Although you may miss, it’s not enough.
NASA’s Ames Vertical Range has been home to researchers since the Apollo era. It was built at Moffett Federal Airfield, California, Silicon Valley.
The projectiles were small and spherical, hitting meteorites suspended on pieces of nylon string.
The team used 32 meteorites – which are fragments of asteroids that have fallen to Earth from space – that were mostly purchased from private dealers.
These tests allowed the researchers to determine at what point the momentum of a human-made object firing towards an asteroid causes it to break up into thousands, instead of knocking it off its course.
Dr Flynn explained that if you broke it up, some of the pieces could still be in a collision course to Earth.
Carbonaceous chondrite (C-type) asteroids, such as Bennu, are the most common in the solar system.
They are darker than other asteroids due to the presence of carbon and are some of the most ancient objects in the solar system – dating back to its birth.
According to the findings from experiments at AVGR, the type of asteroid being targeted (and how much carbon it has in it) may dictate how much momentum would be directed at it from any human-made KID device.
Researchers found that C-type meteorites can withstand less than one-sixth as much momentum before they shatter.
‘[C-type]According to experts, asteroids are more difficult than ordinary chondritesteroids and require disruption.
“These results suggest that multiple consecutive impacts might be necessary to disrupt rather than deflect asteroids.
Therefore, around 160 years in the future – when Bennu is most likely to collide with Earth, according to NASA – a KID device would have to give it a series of gentle nudges to prevent it from breaking up and sending dangerous splinter fragments flying towards Earth.
NASA’s recent study about Bennu, published in the journal Icarus, did point out there is more than a 99.9 per cent probability Bennu will not smash into Earth over the next three centuries.
NASA released a statement saying that Bennu, despite the low chances it will hit Earth, remains one of two potentially dangerous asteroids known to our solar system.
