ANOTHER asteroid will make a “close approach” this week and is being watched by space enthusiasts.
Asteroid 2007 FF1 is expected to make a close and safe encounter with our planet on April 1, according to space trackers, but is still considered “potentially hazardous.”
Any object that comes within 4.65 million miles of us is considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space organizations, and the April Fool’s asteroid will pass within 4.6million miles of our planet.
Meanwhile, Asteroid 2013 BO76 hurtled past Earth on Thursday, March 24, at a staggering 30,000 miles per hour, according to Nasa trackers.
At up to 450 meters across, it’s roughly the same size as the Empire State Building and fortunately, the speedy object missed our planet by some distance.
It was estimated to fly by at a safe distance of around 3.1million miles, according to data on Nasa’s Near-Earth Object database.
Read our asteroid ‘close approach’ live blog for the latest news and updates…
What is a meteorite?
If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vaporize and becomes a meteor.
On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up, and it may look like a fireball or “shooting star.”
If a meteoroid doesn’t vaporize completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, however, it can land on Earth and becomes a meteorite.
Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets, part three
Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun.
However, rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them as a result of the ice and dust vaporizing.
“They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet,” Nasa reported.
Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets, continued
When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids.
“Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as ‘space rocks,’” Nasa reported.
Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets
An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun.
They are “rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago,” Nasa reveals.
Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter).
But they can be found anywhere, including in a path that can impact Earth.
Asteroid mystery solved, continued
Currently, the theory is that Ryugu originated from debris left by the collision of two larger asteroids, but that doesn’t explain why the asteroid is so high in organic content, Newsweek noted.
New findings published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters suggest Ryugu is, in fact, the remains of a dead or extinguished comet.
The new theory involves the comet losing its ice content in a way that could have ended up with it having the “unique characteristics” it does.
Lead author Miura told Newsweek: “Depending on whether Ryugu was originally an asteroid or a comet, it experienced a very different environment.”
“Asteroids formed in warm regions relatively close to the sun. On the other hand, comets formed in a cooler environment away from the sun.”
“To assume off the top of one’s head that Ryugu was originally an asteroid is to overlook the possibility that Ryugu may have been in a cold environment.”
Asteroid mystery solved?
Researchers may have “solved mysteries surrounding the origins of the spinning top-shaped asteroid Ryugu,” Newsweek reported.
In fact, it may actually be the remnants of a dead comet.
Space mission Hayabusa2 returned samples and images from the space rock Asteroid 162173, also known as Ryugu, in 2020.
It is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Objects Studies.
Data from that mission showed that the asteroid has a “spinning top shape,” and that it is “a loose pile of gravitationally bound rubble” with plentiful organic material.
What is an exoplanet?
Exoplanets are planets outside of our Solar System. Thousands have been discovered since the 1980s.
In addition to being possible locations of extraterrestrial life, they provide opportunities to better understand the evolution of the universe.
According to Nasa’s exoplanet database, of the ten exoplanets found this year, six are larger than Jupiter.
TESS prediction
A paper published online last month predicted the number of exoplanets that TESS will find over the course of its seven-year mission.
According to scientists, the agency’s exoplanet-hunting spacecraft will uncover upwards of 12,000 exoplanets by 2024.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made their calculations using data collected by the $287million spacecraft to date.
What TESS has found so far
So far, TESS has found nearly 5,000 worlds of all shapes and sizes, including gas giants, Neptune-like ice worlds, and so-called Super-Earths.
A Super-Earth has a mass higher than our planet’s below those of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.
The search for alien life
Launched four years ago, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope designed to search for undiscovered worlds.
It’s searching an area of sky 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission, in a bid to find candidates that could host alien life.
How far was Asteroid 138971 from Earth?
It shot past us on March 4 from an estimated distance of 3million miles away.
In comparison, the Moon is only about 238,900 miles from us.
A few million miles may sound pretty far away but it’s actually quite close in terms of space.
What is Asteroid 138971?
Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) was said to be up to 4,265 feet wide.
That made it almost three times as big as the Empire State Building.
The Empire State Building stands at around 1,453 feet tall so would pale in comparison to Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21).
Nasa had put the asteroid on its “Earth Close Approaches” list.
Asteroid-pulverizing system, part three
The professor’s PI System is being designed to rocket up to a close asteroid and penetrate it with rods if necessary. Those rods would contain explosives that could be set off and tear the asteroid apart before it hit Earth.
Lubin would like the asteroid chunks to be less than 33 feet in diameter, should such an explosion need to occur.
Those space rocks should then form a cloud of debris that could still hit the Earth, but the hope is that a lot of it would break up in Earth’s atmosphere instead.
The effectiveness of the PI System would depend on things like asteroid size and how close it is to Earth at the time of the “pulverizing.”
Lubin says his system could even orbit Earth one day and be ready for any surprise doomsday asteroids that have the potential to come our way.
Asteroid-pulverizing system, continued
Prof Lubin thinks it would be our best chance of protecting Earth from a devastating asteroid collision.
According to Universe Today, the professor previously presented his defense system at the 2021 Planetary Defence Conference and his idea got spotted by Nasa.
He’s now a Phase One awardee in the Nasa Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
Lubin previously observed: “So far, humanity has been spared large-scale catastrophe as was visited upon our previous tenants, but counting upon being ‘lucky’ is a poor strategy in the longer term.”
We don’t want to go the way of the dinosaurs, after all.
Asteroid-pulverizing system
Professor Philip Lubin from the University of California Santa Barbara is making something he calls the PI-Terminal Defense for Humanity.
The PI part stands for “Pulverize It”.
A simple explanation of the system is that a rocket with lots of explosive rods would approach a large incoming asteroid and smash it into tiny pieces.
Those small rocky pieces would then rain down on Earth and hopefully burn up in the atmosphere.
When is the next major asteroid close encounter?
Another major asteroid is expected to closely pass Earth on May 15, according to Newsweek.
CNEOS data shows that asteroid 2012 UX68 will be about 654,000 miles away from Earth, which is about 2.7 times farther away than the moon.
The asteroid will have a maximum estimated diameter of around 300 feet.
2023 asteroid turns out to be safe
The finding of a potentially deadly asteroid earlier this year sent scientists on an emotional roller coaster.
Astronomers at Arizona’s Mount Lemmon Observatory detected a 70-meter-wide asteroid on January 6, 2022.
Based on their early observations, this object looked to have a chance of colliding with Earth on its next visit, on July 4, 2023.
Because any ambiguities in an asteroid’s orbit are greatest in the hours following its discovery, astronomers from a variety of observatories hurried to perform follow-up observations.
Luckily, the asteroid was ruled not to be a threat.
London Eye-sized
Science Times noted that the asteroid passing Earth last Thursday was “approximately three times larger than the London Eye.”
Relatable distance
On Twitter, IFL Science shared a hilarious comparison in regards to the size of the asteroid that passed Earth on March 24.
“An asteroid is on course to pass Earth today at a mere distance of 3,180,000 miles!” the tweet read.
“This chunk of space rock measures in at a whopping 850ft diameter – or in terms we can all understand, 2,237 ferrets.”
Types of asteroids: M-types
The M-type asteroids (nickel-iron) are made of metal. The compositional variations between asteroids are linked to how distant they originated from the Sun.
After they formed and partially melted, some endured tremendous temperatures, with iron sinking to the center and driving basaltic (volcanic) lava to the surface.
Types of asteroids: S-types
S-type (stony) asteroids are made up of nickel-iron silicate minerals.
Types of asteroids: C-Type
C-Type (chondrite) are the most common asteroids. They are most likely made up of clay and silicate rocks and have a black look. They are among the solar system’s oldest ancient things.
April Fool’s Day
Space experts have said that a “potentially hazardous” asteroid is set to approach the Earth on Friday, April 1.
Astronomers say the closest that the Apollo-class asteroid could get is about 4.6million miles away.
St Patrick’s Day asteroids, continued
A 78 foot asteroid called 2022 EU3 was the last close approach asteroid to shoot past Earth on St Patrick’s Day.
Asteroid 2022 EU3 came within 3.4 million miles of Earth.
The other two asteroids to make the St Paddy’s Day list were called 2022 EM6 and 2022 EU6.
They’re said to be about 200 feet and 183 feet large, respectively.
St Patrick’s Day asteroids
Before Asteroid 2013 BO76 flew by, Nasa was watching five close approach asteroids around St Patrick’s Day.
All of the asteroids made their close approaches to Earth that morning.
Asteroid 2019 PH1 was the largest at 203 feet wide.
The closest approach came from a slightly smaller space rock called 2022 EL6.