Asteroid NEAR MISS Tomorrow!

in #science6 years ago (edited)

Put your hard hats on. Tomorrow we will be the experiencing one of the closest asteroid near misses for a very long time. Way back in 2010 scientists from the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona spotted a faint object moving away from us. It was only visible for about 10 days, from the November 30th to December 10th 2010. They gave the newly discovered object the snappy name 2010 WC9. After that, the object was lost in the vastness of space, too faint to see with Earth telescopes. The short period for which the object was visible was not enough, and 2010 WC9 was too far away to trace the exact orbit, so it wasn’t clear exactly when or where the object would re-appear. Initial calculations showed that it would pass Earth again in 2018 at a distance of almost 4 million kilometres.

meteor-67495_640.jpg
Image licensed under Creative Commons CC-0

Just a couple of days ago, the scientists found the object again. When they first saw it they gave it a temporary name ZJ99C60. But the scientists from the Catalina Sky Survey soon figured out it was actually 2010 WC9 returning to us. They know that it is the same object because now they could trace its orbit and calculate what its location was eight years ago. And that coincides with the object they saw all those years ago.

And now we know what the trajectory is we also know that it will get really close to us. Not the 4 million kilometres initially calculated but only 200,000 kilometres. That is closer to us than the Moon. The asteroid will have its closest approach tomorrow, May 15 at 22:05 UTC. 2010 WC9 is about 100 metres across. Estimates are anywhere between 60 metres to 130 metres, about the size of a football pitch. If this kind of asteroid would hit Earth, it would make quite a big explosion. It’s not mass-extinction size. But it is larger than the Chelyabinsk meteor that hit the Russian city in 2013, causing 112 people to be hospitalised and damaging buildings.

If an asteroid of the size of 2010 WC9 would hit Earth, it would probably cause an impact similar to the famous 1908 Tunguska event. Although we don’t know for certain what object caused the Tunguska blast, our best estimate is an object of 60 to 190 metres, very similar to 2010 WC9. If a blast like that happened over an inhabited area, it would cause a serious catastrophe.

But don’t worry! The lost and found asteroid won’t be hitting us anytime soon. Now that we know its orbit we can calculate its future trajectory with great precision. And even though it might intersect with Earth’s orbit every now and again, it will not collide with our planet.

While it gets really close to us, you won’t be able to see it with your naked eye. In principle, amateur astronomers could spot it but they would have to know exactly where and when to look for this tiny, fast-moving rock. Even then, it would only appear as a dim speck in their telescopes.

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Hi, I found some acronyms/abbreviations in this post. This is how they expand:

AcronymExplanation
CCCommercial Crew program,Capsule Communicator (ground support)
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