Astronomers have discovered a massive asteroid, designated as 2022 PW, that is 2.3 times the size of large dinosaurs and is heading towards our planet, passing by on Aug. 16, 2022.
The situation was noted by the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The asteroid is estimated to be traveling the cosmos with a speed of 7.47 kilometers per second, which is roughly 26,892 kilometers per hour.
Asteroid 2022 PW
However, what is most notable about the large cosmic object is the distance that it would pass Earth. NASA's CNEOS noted that 2022 PW is expected to pass by our planet at a distance of approximately 529,000 kilometers, which is relatively close by cosmic standards.
To put the distance into perspective, our moon, on average, orbits the Earth at a distance of roughly 384,000 kilometers. This means that the large asteroid will be farther from the Earth than the moon, but only by a small margin, and will still come relatively close, as per MSN.
NASA's CNEOS estimated 2022 PW to have a diameter that could be as wide as 51 meters, which makes it 2.3 times larger than a Brachiosaurus, which is a large long-necked dinosaur that lived in prehistoric times.
While the asteroid is expected to pass Earth relatively closely, scientists noted that it does not pose a threat to our planet. Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Near-Earth Object Studies Center said that a 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, saying that calculations do not show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.
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According to the Hindustan Times, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for monitoring the sky with telescopes and keeping track of upcoming flybys. With the help of advanced telescopes, more than 750,000 asteroids have been discovered to date of which more than 27,000 are near-Earth asteroids.
DART Mission
The asteroid's visit comes as the space agency, last year, launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that aims to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts. The project aims to change the direction of an asteroid by colliding with it, using the force of the impact to steer the cosmic object off its track.
NASA launched a spacecraft to test whether or not the collision will change the direction of the asteroid. It is expected to strike an asteroid with a speed of roughly 23,760 kilometers per hour and the space agency will be monitoring the direction of the asteroid.
The space agency will also be able to study the asteroid's atmosphere, metal, dust, soil, etc. during the collision. The DART mission will employ the technique called Kinetic Impactor Technique which was developed specifically to change an asteroid's direction.
The asteroid that NASA plans to test the mission is one called Didymos, which is 2,600 feet in diameter. The cosmic object also has one small, moon-like stone circling around it named Dimorphos that has a diameter of 525 feet, India reported.
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