Earth on Alert: Apollo Asteroid Approaching at High Velocity
Following the recent near miss of Asteroid 2023 SF6, which came within a distance of 1.4 million kilometers from Earth, another asteroid is anticipated to approach today. NASA has disclosed that this asteroid is projected to narrowly avoid colliding with Earth, although it may pass by in close proximity. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) of NASA, responsible for monitoring the skies for potential rogue asteroids, has issued a cautionary alert regarding the imminent close encounter with Asteroid 2023 SW6.
The space rock will make its closest approach to Earth today, September 28, passing the planet at a distance of 1.3 million kilometers. It has been tracked in orbit and travels at a speed of nearly 42,755 kilometers per hour.
While not a planet-killer or dinosaur-killing asteroid, this asteroid is nearly the same size as the Chelyabinsk asteroid that slammed into the Russian city in 2013, injuring more than 1,400 people and damaging 7,000 buildings. It was only 59 feet wide! NASA estimates that asteroid 2023 SW6 is about 57 feet across, making it almost the size of a house.
Other details
It belongs to Apollo’s group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-passing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth’s. These asteroids are named after the huge 1862 Apollo asteroid discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.
Shockingly, this will be the first close-to-Earth approach in the history of Asteroid 2023 SW6. According to details provided by NASA’s Small-Body Database Lookup, it will not approach the planet very closely in the near future.
Alvarez hypothesis
The Alvarez hypothesis, proposed by father and son duo Luis and Walter Alvarez in 1980, states that an asteroid hit Earth more than 65 million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Although its impact crater is thought to be in Mexico, new light has now been shed on how it got to Earth. According to English physicist Brian Cox, the asteroid that formed the 140 km long impact crater was thrown off course by Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.
“It’s very likely or possible that Jupiter put it on a collision course with Earth,” Cox said, emphasizing that Jupiter is the creator and destroyer of worlds.
