Well, what a year it has been so far! And now it seems like we have seen it all, doesnt it? But wait...did you know that an asteroid is going to fly by Earth on Saturday? Take a chill-pill. No, it will not hit Earth and will safely fly our planet.
What is asteroid 2002 NH4?
NASA had announced that a giant asteroid is expected to fly by Earth albeit at a safe distance on June 6. Asteroid named as 2002 NH4 is said to be 250-570 meters in diameter, according to NASA's Jet propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This asteroid is a Near-Earth Object (NEO) and is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA).
Well, while looking at the diameter it looks quite big, but it looks relatively smaller in the large telescopes. As per NASA's JPL, the magnitude of the asteroid is just 20 that is even dimmer that the planet Pluto.
As reported by USA Today, Derek Buzasi, professor of physics at Florida Gulf Coast University, said that 2002 NH4 is bigger that roughly 90% of asteroids and he even compared it to the size of a football stadium.
When was the asteroid discovered?
The asteroid was discovered in July 2002.
Will it hit Earth?
NASA has said that "Asteroid 2002 NN4 will safely pass by the Earth on June 6 at a distance of approximately 3.2 million miles (5.1 milliion kilometers), about 13 times further away from the Earth than the Moon is. There is no danger the asteroid will hit the Earth."
What is a Near-Earth Object?
According to NASA's website, "NEOs are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun, but their orbits bring them into Earth’s neighborhood – within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit."
NASA says that "These objects are relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system’s formation some 4.6 billion years ago. Most of the rocky asteroids originally formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, while comets, composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, formed in the cold outer solar system."
How is it calculated?
As per NASA, scientists determine the orbit of an asteroid by comparing measurements of its position as it moves across the sky to the predictions of a computer model of its orbit around the Sun. The more observations that are used and the longer the period over which those observations are made, the more accurate the calculated orbit and the predictions that can be made from it.
As of the start of 2019, the number of discovered NEOs totaled more than 19,000, and it had increased to 22,776 in April. An average of 30 new discoveries are added each week, said NASA.
