Earth to Experience a Startlingly Close Flyby from Asteroid Today – Is it a Threat?
The majority of asteroids are typically located in the main asteroid belt, which is situated between Mars and Jupiter. These asteroids are easily observable using advanced telescopes on the ground and in space. However, scientists have recently identified three elusive asteroids that were concealed by the Sun’s brightness. NASA reports that one of these asteroids is among the largest and potentially dangerous objects discovered in the past eight years. To locate and study these asteroids, a team utilized the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) installed on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile, which is part of the NSF’s NOIRLab program. Locating celestial objects in the vicinity of the Sun is exceptionally challenging for astronomers due to the intense glare emitted by the Sun.
While tracking these asteroids, NASA has also discovered an asteroid whose orbit brings it very close to Earth today.
Asteroid 2020 UQ3 information
According to details revealed by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), this asteroid, named Asteroid 2020 UQ3, is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today, July 18. Its orbit takes it up to 1.2 million kilometers away. close to the ground. Although this distance may seem large, astronomically speaking it is not much at all. It is estimated to travel at a speed of 33,387 kilometers per hour.
According to NASA, an asteroid approaching Earth is not expected to fall. Asteroid 2020 UQ3 is nearly 190 feet across, which is not large enough to be classified as a potentially hazardous object. It is almost the size of an airplane.
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.
How many asteroids are there?
With the help of advanced satellites and ground-based telescopes such as the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), as many as 1,298,692 asteroids have been discovered so far, of which more than 27,000 are near-Earth asteroids whose orbits bring them. closer than 7.5 million kilometers to Earth.
