The Earth was nearly left by what could have been a "city killer" asteroid, named as the 2019 OK last Wednesday as it left a lot of scientists stunned because they barely noticed the threat that the space rock came with.
Based on the Washington Post, citing the data that came from NASA, it reported that the asteroid 2019 OK has an estimated size of 57 to 130 meters wide. It has a rough distance from Earth of about 73,000 kilometers, which is roughly ⅕ of its distance to the moon. Although this distance may seem too big for people to worry about, in the language of space and time, this distance meant the asteroid was too close.
Surprisingly, the asteroid was not in any radar of scientists that they described it as something that seemingly appeared "out of nowhere."
"Nothing of this size is truly easy to detect. All we can do is to rely on the reflected sunlight. In fact, even when tan asteroid is as its closest approach towards the Earth, if it is not as big as people expect, then it would barely be visible in all the radars that have been put in place," said Alan Duffy, lead scientist and researcher from the Royal Institute of Australia. He said this during his interview with the representatives from the Washington Post.
Several forecasts have already been issued and scientists have predicted that there will be a couple of other asteroids that will be passing by the Earth at a closer range. The asteroid 2019 OK is relatively too close to the Earth that one can see it using binoculars. However, none of these coming asteroids will be that close to the planet as the Asteroid 2019 Ok did.
The last-minute detection of this asteroid due to is small size is one of the tell-tale signs that the universe remains to be unknown to humans. There is still so much more to learn about space. This also serves as a warning that some of the areas in the world may be devastated if the asteroid of its size hit the Earth.
