NASA Will Visit Asteroid Smaller Than Bus, Suspected To Be Dangerous

Source: CNET | Editor: Arif Budianto

KONTAN.CO.ID – Sailing into outer space, NASA will visit a smaller asteroid. Despite its small size, this asteroid named 2020 GE is thought to pose a significant danger.

The size of the asteroid does not seem to be a benchmark whether it is dangerous or not for the Earth inhabited by mankind. That’s what makes NASA focus on visiting small asteroids in the next mission.

Quoted from CNET, in the next mission called Artemis I, this NASA unmanned mission will sail into space while testing the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft as a precursor to sending people back to the Moon.

Not only that, this Artemis I mission will also launch a side mission Near-Earth Asteroid Scout using an airplane the size of a shoebox to visit a small asteroid. Truly cruising in space, it will unfurl a solar sail to harness solar radiation for propulsion, making this the first space mission of its kind.

Solar sail technology is known to be a relatively new frontier. The NEA Scout’s solar sail is made of super-thin plastic-coated aluminum and will span the size of a racquetball field.

Quoting from the official page NASA, the small asteroid being targeted is 2020 GE. This is a near-Earth asteroid (Near-Earth Object) measuring less than 60 feet (18 meters).

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Asteroids smaller than 330 feet (100 meters) are previously known to have never been explored up close. The spacecraft will use the camera to take a closer look, measure it, revealing the shape, rotation, and surface properties of objects while searching for dust and debris that may surround 2020 GE.

From this approach, the researchers on the mission hope to determine whether 2020 GE is solid or boulder-like or composed of small rock and clumped dust, like Bennu.

Despite its small size, NEA Scout researcher Julie Castillo-Rogez revealed that it could pose a danger.

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“Although large asteroids are of greatest concern from a planetary defense perspective, objects like 2020 GE are much more common and can pose a danger to our planet, despite their small size,” said Julie Castillo-Rogez. NASA.

Julie Castillo-Rogez also added that small celestial bodies such as the Chelyabinsk meteor caused by a small asteroid about 20 meters in diameter. The meteor exploded over a city in Russia on February 15, 2013, creating a shockwave that shattered the windows of entire cities.

Not only that, the meteor also injured more than 1,600 people. That’s the explosion caused by the same NEA class asteroid as 2020 GE.

Therefore, NASA is working to dig up information about 2020 GE in order to study it in order to improve the defense of planet Earth from threatening celestial objects.

The launch of the Artemis I mission is expected this year, perhaps early March or April. If all goes well, NEA Scout will meet asteroid 2020 GE in late 2023.