A asteroid a giant the size of a whale will pass close to Earth on Friday (12/8).
The asteroid, named 2015 FF, is estimated to be about 13 to 28 meters in diameter), or roughly the length of an adult blue whale, which has the Latin name Balaenoptera musculus.
Asteroid 2015 FF is estimated to be hurtling past Earth at a speed of 33,012 kilometers per hour.
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO RESUME CONTENT
–
At its closest move, the asteroid, traveling at about 27 times the speed of sound, will be about 4.3 million kilometers from Earth.
This distance is about eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon, so it is categorized as a near-Earth object (NEO) as well as a potentially dangerous object.
According to the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), celestial bodies that are less than 193 million kilometers from Earth are categorized as NEOs. Meanwhile, celestial bodies that move at high speed and are at a distance of less than 7.5 million kilometers are categorized as potentially dangerous celestial objects Live Science.
Citing the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), asteroid 2015 FF will be at its closest point to Earth on Friday (12/8) at 08.09 PDT or 20.09 WIB.
Further, NASA know the locations and orbits of about 28,000 asteroids which he mapped with the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). This system is an array of four telescopes capable of carrying out a complete scan of the entire night sky every 24 hours.
Since ATLAS became operational in 2017, this mapping system has detected more than 700 near-Earth asteroids and 66 comets.
Two asteroids detected by ATLAS, 2019 MO and 2018 LA, reportedly actually hit Earth. The first asteroid exploded off the southern coast of Puerto Rico, while that landed near the border of Botswana and South Africa. Fortunately, the two asteroids were small and did not cause any damage.
NASA has estimated the trajectories of all near-Earth objects by the end of the century. The good news is that Earth does not face any potential danger from an asteroid collision for at least the next 100 years.
(lom/lth)
–
