The ‘giant’ asteroid to break the wind passed the Earth on April 28-Information Technology

According to NASA, a “potentially dangerous” giant asteroid twice the size of the US Empire State Building will pass by Earth on Thursday (April 28).

Illustration of an asteroid passing our Earth

The asteroid, named 418135 (2008 AG33), has an estimated diameter of 350 to 780 m and will plunge into Earth’s orbit at 37,400 km/h. Thankfully, this asteroid will pass by our planet without any danger of impact.

At its closest point, this asteroid – traveling at 30 times the speed of sound – will come about 3.2 million km from Earth, which is almost 8 times the average distance between Earth and the Sun. moon. By cosmic standards, it’s just a stone thrown away.

NASA flags any space object within 193 million kilometers of Earth as a “near-Earth object,” and any fast-moving object within 7.5 million kilometers as “potentially hazardous.” dangerous”. Once the objects are flagged, astronomers will keep a close eye on them, looking for any deviations from their predicted orbits that could cause them to collide with Earth.

The meteorite was first detected on January 12, 2008, by asteroid surveyors at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter observatory in Arizona and last passed by Earth on March 1, 2015. NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Asteroids pass by our planet about every seven years, with the next close pass predicted to arrive on May 25, 2029.

The asteroid that will pass Earth on April 28 is not the largest known meteorite. A larger and faster asteroid will pass by Earth on May 9.

If astronomers were to spy on an asteroid that flew directly into Earth, space agencies around the world have been looking for ways to deflect the object. On November 24, 2021, NASA launched the spacecraft as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, which plans to redirect a non-dangerous asteroid by crashing it off course.

China is also in the early planning stages for an asteroid redirection mission. By firing 23 rockets on March 5 at the asteroid Bennu, the country said it could redirect the meteorite from a potentially catastrophic impact on Earth.