NASA and other space agencies have been monitoring near-Earth objects. This time, the American space agency detected a massive asteroid as tall as a 50-story building heading toward Earth.
It will zoom past Earth today, July 17, and is considered the closest flyby of the asteroid to the planet in 100 years, space object trackers revealed, The US Sun reported.
Eight Times Faster Than A Speeding Rifle Bullet
Dubbed Asteroid 2022 KY4, NASA said that the space rock would safely miss Earth by about 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) or about 16 times the average distance of the Moon to Earth.
Scientists explain that this distance is considerably farther than the previous Asteroid 2022 NE that passed by the planet on July 7 at a distance of 56,000 miles (90,000 km) or 23% of the average distance of the moon to Earth.
According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Asteroid 2022 KY4 is about 290 feet (88 meters) in diameter and travels eight times faster than a speeding rifle bullet at an estimated speed of 16,900 mph (27,000 kph).
The space rock has made several close approaches to the planet before, wherein the last time was around August 1959. NASA records show that the asteroid came closer than ever before. Prior to that year, the asteroid also had a close flyby in 1948 and even made close approaches to other celestial bodies, such as Mars and Jupiter, on more than one occasion.
After today's flyby, Asteroid 2022 KY4 will head towards Mars and will pass through the Red Planet's orbit in 11 years, The US Sun reported. It is estimated that the asteroid will once again pass by Earth in 2048.
Asteroid flybys can be watched on Virtual Telescope's webpage or through their YouTube channel. Telescopes are also great tools for observing space rocks. Just make sure that viewing conditions are clear to get the best view of them.
Monitoring Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)
According to Live Science, NASA and other space agencies closely monitor thousands of near-Earth objects like Asteroid 2022 KY4 even though their trajectory puts them millions of miles away from the planet. Due to its distance from Earth, there is a slim chance that the asteroid's orbit could be affected by the gravity of the planet, potentially putting it on a collision course with Earth.
But even so, space agencies around the world are preparing for a future flyby that might end up colliding with Earth. For instance, NASA launched an asteroid-deflecting spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in November 2021 that will slam directly into asteroid Dimorphus, which is about 525-foot-wide (160 km), in autumn of this year.
They estimated that the collision could slightly change the orbital path of the space rock even though it would not be able to destroy the asteroid. The success of this mission will help test the effectiveness of an asteroid deflection technology that should come in handy should an asteroid in the future pose an imminent threat to Earth.
RELATED ARTICLE: NASA Working On Stopping "City-Killer" Asteroids From Hitting Earth; How Prepared Is Humanity From Space Rocks?
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