The space rock referred to as 2020 TK3 is functioning its way towards Earth's orbit. The asteroid will zoom past our planet on Saturday, October 17, coming almost as near Earth because the Moon is. in keeping with NASA, the asteroid will come within 1.3 lunar distances of Earth.
One lunar distance is that the space between our planet and also the Moon.
The asteroid will safely swing by Earth, before it makes its thanks to the orbits of the closer planets to the Sun - Mercury and Venus - before flying back out behind Earth so Mars.
Observations revealed that the asteroid is travelling at a staggering 11.1 kilometers per second.
This translates to almost 40,000 kilometers per hour, meaning it could get around Earth in almost exactly an hour.
However, the space rock could be a mere 11 meters in size which suggests that it doesn't pose a threat to Earth.
If it were to air a collision course with out planet - which it's not - it'd simply spend within the atmosphere, appearing as a fireball or a meteor.
Nonetheless, its close approach to our planet means NASA has designated 2020 TK3 as a near Earth object (NEO).
NASA has said: “NEOs are comets and asteroids that are nudged by the attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.
“The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status because the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.
“The giant outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed from an agglomeration of billions of comets and also the left over bits and pieces from this formation process are the comets we see today.
"Likewise, today’s asteroids are the bits and pieces left over from the initial agglomeration of the inner planets that include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
"As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the scheme formation process, comets and asteroids offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago.
"If we wish to understand the composition of the primordial mixture from which the planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process - the comets and asteroids."
1 comment:
How does an asteroid passing just 40,000 km from the earth not be attracted by its gravity?
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