This Wednesday, April 29, a potentially dangerous asteroid called 1998 OR2 It will pass close to Earth, although more than 6 million kilometers. Therefore, it will not impact our planet, fortunately.
–
1998 OR2 was an asteroid of the Main Belt, a circular strip of rocks that lies between Mars and Jupiter. For various reasons, usually due to interactions with the giants of the solar system Jupiter and Saturn, these rocks, which are usually quiet in the belt, can change their orbit and fall towards the inner solar system.
–
This is when they approach the orbit of our planet and become considered potentially dangerous objects. That’s the case of 1998 OR2, an asteroid of type NEO (near-Earth objects, in English). It will cross Earth orbit and, as it can pose a threat, you have to keep it under control.
–
<iframe class = "_ 3ndsl" height = "0" srcdoc = "
Have questions about asteroid 1998 OR2, comet Borisov, or comet Atlas? Want to know more about these cosmic objects zipping through our solar system? ????☄️ Join us in an hour at 4pm ET on @reddit to chat with NASA scientists and experts about them! https://t.co/kwhQ8k3GLH pic.twitter.com/JWQRgEyvQ0
– NASA Universe (@NASAUniverse) April 28, 2020
“scrolling =” no “title =” socialEmbed-twitter “>
This asteroid is very large, compared to the sizes of others that also pass close to Earth. Its diameter is around 4 km and, in principle, that makes it the largest and closest asteroid that will pass us in the coming years.
–
Could impact in the distant future
The closest approach in 2020 will be this April 29, but does it pose any danger to us? According to the scientists, the answer is clear: “No”. This time, it will be 16 times the Earth-Moon distance. That is a safe enough separation.
–
In the year 2076 it will pass only four times the Earth-Moon distance. At that time it will not be dangerous either, but we will have to be vigilant, controlling the orbit of this object, because there is the possibility that in the future, in hundreds or thousands of years, it will suffer a small disturbance and end up colliding with Earth. If this happened, it could be a problem for all the inhabitants who live on the planet then.
–
Today several missions are being carried out, both from the POT as from the European Space Agency ( THAT), so that if an object of large dimensions is detected, it can be deviated or fragmented.
–
But experts insist, it is not the case of 1998 OR2, which will pass at a safe distance from our planet. You just have to keep an eye on it, like many other objects close to Earth.
–
The number that identifies the asteroid 1998 OR2 refers to the fact that it was discovered in 1998, on July 24, by astronomers of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program from the Haleakala Observatory, in Hawaii (United States).
–
NEO, NEA and PHA
Near-Earth objects ( NEO, Near Earth Objects) are not just about asteroids. They also include comets, artificial satellites, and meteoroids smaller than 50 meters. Even an object of this size could cause extensive damage to the Earth’s surface.
–
An object that approaches our planet is considered NEO when its perihelion (its closest distance to the planet) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (considering that an astronomical unit is approximately the average distance between Earth and the Sun ).
–
The Main Asteroid Belt is the origin of all the rocks that fall to Earth, both large and small. It is thought that it may have more than three million, of which around 930,000 are known and among which is Ceres, the largest of them all.
–
Normally, NEOs that approach Earth tend to originate from this main Belt, unlike comets, which can come from the outer part of the Oort Cloud or the Kuiper Belt.
–
The probability of impact of an asteroid is not high. Furthermore, since 80% of the Earth’s surface is water, it most likely did not do so over an inhabited area. But if this were to happen, the environmental catastrophe would be very serious.
–
When an asteroid approaches Earth it is called NEA (Near Earth Asteroid) and, within this category, there is a subgroup whose initials in English are PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroids) and refer to potentially dangerous asteroids.
–
A NEA becomes a PHA when it is larger than 150 meters in diameter and if the distance between its orbit and Earth’s orbit is less than 25 times the Earth-Moon distance.
–
