Jacob VanGundy | Posted
Several asteroids will pass by Earth in the next few days, some of which will be astronomically surprisingly close. This space rock joins several others that missed our planet on October 24th. With the density of passing celestial bodies so high, it’s clear why NASA is monitoring their trajectories so closely.
Five asteroids are in orbit that will speed past Earth between now and October 28th. NASA’s surveillance team is keeping track, monitoring the approach of potentially dangerous space rocks. The team operates an online dashboard that provides information to the public, including size, distance, trajectory, and date of transit by Earth.
One day, three asteroids
October 26th will be the most active over the next few days when three asteroids will pass by our planet. These meteors range in diameter from 64 to 110 feet, with the smallest being described as “house-sized” and the two larger rocks described as “airplane-sized.” The smallest of these will be closest to Earth, just 132,000 miles from its closest point.
On October 27th and 28th we will each see an asteroid pass by, including another close one. On October 27, an airplane-sized space rock will pass by Earth 2.4 million miles away. Another small, bus-sized rock will come even closer, 148,000 miles from its nearest point.
A busy month for asteroids
All this activity comes on the heels of an even more active day on October 24th when four asteroids pass by Earth. The incoming rock will be much closer to Earth on October 24, at a distance of 2.8 million miles. But the space rocks discovered on October 24 were much larger, reaching the size of a skyscraper, with the largest having a radius of 580 feet.
Large asteroids, like the one that passed by on October 24, are of particular interest to scientists because they could cause major disasters. The skyscraper-sized space rock has been called a “city killer” because it could destroy an area several miles wide if it crashed into Earth. Even more worrying is a “planet killer” large enough to throw the entire planet into chaos.
End call
Two of the asteroids that passed by on the 24th were particularly concerning because NASA discovered them less than a month before they passed. Tests have proven that dangerous space collisions can be avoided using rockets, but preparing for them takes time. Recent exercises designed to test the international response to these types of disasters have shown that the space community is ill-equipped to deal with these problems in the short term.
The fact that a potentially dangerous asteroid is coming so close to Earth is cause for alarm, even if no asteroid is on a collision course with our planet. Now that scientists can avoid collisions with rockets, it’s more important than ever to monitor them closely. It’s only a matter of time before one of these massive rocks collides with Earth. But if it were detected quickly, it would be a disaster we could have avoided.
Source: NASA
