Asteroid alert! An asteroid the size of an airplane is heading towards Earth at a fiery speed of 53,171 kilometers per hour

[ad_1]

NASA warned that a giant asteroid is heading dangerously towards Earth today! Learn about its speed, trajectory, and more, according to NASA.

To study asteroids not in the asteroid belt, NASA has the Lucy space mission. NASA launched its Lucy spacecraft on October 16, 2021 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is NASA’s first space mission to study the Trojans, a group of asteroids that orbit the sun in two groups, according to NASA. It is designed to search for Trojan asteroids millions of kilometers from Earth. But before that, NASA also issued an alert about an asteroid that is hurtling towards the planet and could come close today!

Asteroid 2022 YB1 information

NASA has warned that an asteroid called Asteroid 2022 YB1 is heading towards Earth and is expected to pass near the planet today, December 26th. The asteroid is already on its way toward us, traveling at an astonishing 53,171 kilometers per hour. The asteroid will approach Earth today at a distance of only 2.1 million kilometers, or 0.01451 astronomical units.

An astronomical unit (AU, or au) is basically a unit of length equal to the mean or average distance between Earth and the Sun, i.e. 149597870.7 kilometers.

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for observing the skies and monitoring various near-Earth objects (NEOs). If any celestial body is at risk of colliding with the Earth and is located 8 million km from the planet, the organization places a red NEO flag and issues an alert.

The alert has been issued against Asteroid 2022 YB1, which is between 62 feet and 141 feet across, making it about the size of an airplane!

How does NASA track these asteroids?

NASA monitors these asteroids by studying data collected by various telescopes and observatories such as Pan-STARRS, Catalina Sky Survey and NEOWISE Telescope. NASA also has a NEO Surveyor mission planned for launch in 2026 to obtain greater in-depth data using a new orbiter.

NASA also has a new impact monitoring system that uses an algorithm called Sentry-II to calculate NEO impact risks. NASA can track the asteroid’s orbital path using this infrared data and can even predict its orbital years into the future.

[ad_2]