NASA Warns of Near-Miss with Asteroid the Size of an Aircraft

NASA has announced that it will be commencing its Psyche mission on October 5th at 10:38 a.m. EDT, launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To capture this remarkable event, digital content creators have been invited to participate. The Psyche spacecraft, with the assistance of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, will embark on a voyage to the asteroid 16 Psyche, situated within the primary asteroid belt, positioned between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

16 Along with the Psyche asteroid, another asteroid has attracted the interest of scientists recently as it makes its closest approach to Earth in years today, August 24th.

Asteroid 2023 QN2

NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has named this space rock asteroid 2023 QN2, making it one of 1,298,148 asteroids discovered so far. According to NASA, it will make its closest approach to Earth today, August 24, and will pass at a distance of about 7.3 million kilometers. Asteroid 2023 QN2 has already been tracked as it orbits Earth at a speed of 55,546 kilometers per hour, much faster than a hypersonic ballistic missile!

Although the asteroid passes close to the planet, it does not yet pose a danger due to its relatively small size. According to NASA, it is about 150 feet wide, making it almost the size of an airplane. However, it is still not a potentially dangerous item because it does not meet the criteria.

Asteroid 2023 QN2 belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semimajor axes greater than the Earth’s axis. These asteroids are named after the huge 1862 Apollo asteroid discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

About the Psyche mission

One of the most shocking discoveries about the 16 Psyche asteroid is that it may be worth more than the entire Earth’s economy combined! According to NASA, asteroid 16 Psyche, one of the largest asteroids in our solar system, is composed of gold, nickel and iron and is believed to be more valuable than Earth’s economy. It’s worth a whopping $10 quadrillion! In addition to its gold-rich structure, this asteroid’s outer surface is rich in nickel, resembling the core of an early planet.

With its Psyche mission, scientists will have the opportunity to study how terrestrial planets formed without having to cut through the ground.