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Are we ready for an asteroid strike?
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The asteroid was discovered on August 16, 2020 and named QG 2020. It orbits the Sun around course collision with the orbit of the Earth, but two days ago we had no idea about it. How does Business Insider bring, it was first noticed by researchers at the Palomar Observatory in California in USA.
It literally flew past the Earth
Of course, different types of observatories detect many similar objects, but this one turned out to be unique. August 16 passed the Earth almost “by a hair”. The calculations show that at the moment of closest approach, the distance between QG 2020 and the surface of our planet was only 1,830 miles, or 2,945 km. This is more than four times smaller than the Earth’s diameter. Thus, it was the closest detected encounter between our planet and the cosmic rock that did not end in falling to the surface of the Earth.
For comparison, the International Space Station moves about 400 km from the surface of the Blue Planet, satellites in geostationary orbit orbit our globe at a distance of less than 36 thousand. km, and the moon is approx. 385 thousand. km.
According to the Minor Planet Center organization, QG 2020 flew at a speed of approximately 12.5 km / s over the southern Pacific Ocean – several hundred miles east of the Australian coast. The zoom was, of course, so large that the Earth’s gravitational field changed the object’s trajectory.
In the figure below, the QG 2020 flight path is marked in green. The yellow arrow indicates the sun, and the blue indicates the direction of the earth’s movement. The orbit of the Moon is marked in gray.
2020 QG flyby near Earth photo: International Astronomical Union – Minor Planet Center
Nobody noticed her for six hours
Unfortunately, QG 2020 also revealed the shortcomings of the world’s Near-Earth objects (NEO) detection systems. Researchers discovered it only six hours after its closest approach, when it was already away from our planet. Before, even the existence of an asteroid was not known.
All because of the relatively small size. According to researchers, QG 2020 is approximately 2 to 5.5 meters in diameter, which makes it a relatively small NEO object. According to various definitions, we should therefore include it in the group of meteoroids.
This means that if QG 2020 had fallen into the Earth’s atmosphere, it would not have done much damage. Most likely, it would collapse as a result of an explosion at a safe altitude, and small pieces of material would reach the planet’s surface. For comparison, a meteoroid that exploded over the Chelyabinsk region in Russia in 2013 it was about 17-20 meters in diameter. The shock wave caused by the cosmic stone injured about 1,500 people. At that time, the threat was also not detected earlier.
Small asteroids are extremely troublesome
Researchers still struggle to find smaller NEO objects. Of course, the very small size of most nearby asteroids is a huge obstacle, which makes their detection difficult. As Business Insider reminds, NASA is able to observe approx. 90 percent. rocks with a diameter of more than 140 meters. The smaller ones are found less frequently.
Another difficulty is the direction from which the NEO objects are coming. 2020 QG and many more suddenly appeared from the side of the sun, which is extremely difficult to see. NEOs are detected with optical telescopes. These work well at night, but are almost useless in daylight.
Fortunately, the risk to humans from an asteroid impact is negligible. So far, not a single space disaster in which a human was killed has been documented.
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