The record-breaking asteroid 2020 QG will not soon forget its run-in with Earth.
Early Sunday morning (August 16), the car-sized 2020 QG zoomed just 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) above the Indian Ocean, causing the closest known flyby by an asteroid that eventually did not hit our planet.
Although 2020 QG survived the encounter, its path through space was significantly changed, scientists say.
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“It’s very cool to see a small asteroid through this close up, because we can dramatically bend the Earth’s trajectory in its trajectory,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement. “Our calculations show that this asteroid rotated 45 degrees as it swung across our planet.”
Researchers did not learn from the existence of QG from 2020 until the Zwicky Transient Facility, a survey telescope in Southern California funded by the American National Science Foundation and NASA, an image of the asteroid zooms from Earth six hours to nearest approach.
That image shows 2020 QG as a hazy region – no surprise, considering that the space rock ran on the barn at about 29,000 mph (46,700 km / h). As fast as that is, it’s a little slower than average for an asteroid near Earth, Chodas said.
There are many millions asteroids near Earth there about the same size as 2020 QG, which is thought to be 3 to 6 meters (3 to 6 meters) wide. Such small space rocks are very difficult to detect, but they do not pose a danger to life on Earth.
‘If it [2020 QG] had actually been an impact project, it would probably have been one fireball when it erupts into the Earth’s atmosphere, which happens several times a year, “NASA officials wrote in the same statement. (Fireballs are meteors that blow brighter than Venus in our skies.)
Large asteroids, however, are a bit of a concern. Scientists think, for example, that a space rock 6 kilometers wide (10 km) formed in the dinosaurs when it orbited the Earth 66 million years ago.
NASA has found and tracked more than 95% of the mountain asteroids near Earth, and none of them state impact risk in the foreseeable future. The space agency is currently working on a compiled extensive catalog of near-Earth asteroids, at least 140 meters (140 m) wide, compiled, which would do devastating damage on a regional scale if they hit.
Such work has practical applications then just warn people about a severe impact. With enough notice – at least a few years, at least, humanity could deflects an incoming asteroid, say experts.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
