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Asteroid is racing towards earth: Closer than ever – “We didn’t see it coming”

So far, no asteroid has flown past Earth as “a hair-cut”. The lump of stones the size of an off-road vehicle raced towards the earth unnoticed.

  • Asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and setting a new record.
  • Even NASA was surprised: “We didn’t see him coming.”
  • The lump of stone was the size of a car.

San Diego – Well, mankind was really lucky there. Was last used by many, especially the Coronavirus* called the downfall of the earth, crashed into place until last weekend Asteroid on the earth to. Even Paul Chodad, the director of the NASA– Center for the Research of Near-Earth Objects, had to opposite Business Insider admit: “Of the Asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun. We didn’t see him coming. “

What may sound like a modern form of the apocalypse now was not so bad in the end. Even if the stone lump the size of an off-road vehicle is heading at a top speed of 12.3 kilometers per second earth moved that it would probably have simply burned up in the earth’s atmosphere due to its too small size. So lucky.

Asteroid approaches Earth and sets a new record

And yet he has Asteroid with the name „2020 QG“ leave a lasting impression. By getting a new one Record and it is practically in the Guinness Book of Asteroids has achieved. On Sunday (August 16) the stone lump passed the southern Indian Ocean at an altitude of 2950 kilometers. Never before has it flown in so close Asteroid past the earth. The densest flyby so far dates back to 2011. Around 5500 kilometers were between Asteroid and earth. On Sunday the Palomar Observatory in the US state could California then report on the new record: “2020 QG” had come closer to the earth by almost 2500 kilometers.

“It’s really cool, a little one Asteroids to see that comes so close, because then we can observe how the gravitational force changes its route significantly “, Chodas was happy about the spectacular findthat wasn’t until six hours after being at the earth had flown by was discovered.

Record asteroid rushes towards Earth – “We didn’t see it coming”

With a diameter between three and six meters „2020 QG“ actually relatively small, it said on the part of the NASA. Asteroids of this size fly several times a year at the earth over, but only a few can even be recorded by telescopes due to their size and speed.

As a rule, the NASA recognize only a fraction of so-called NEOs (near-earth objects). Many of them do not cross the line of sight of a telescope. Size Asteroids, which can accordingly only be discovered later, can have great potential for danger. Should be a closer to earth Asteroid cheat through the surveillance system, human losses could well occur. Fortunately, in this “record case” everything went well.

One Record Meters found a man in Baden-Württemberg in his garden. The record-breaking find weighed over 30 kilograms. *Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network

Rubriklistenbild: © ZTF/Caltech Optical Observatories /dpa/picture alliance

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