- ‘Potentially hazardous’ asteroid that recently zipped past Earth is an elongated weirdo with an odd rotation Livescience.com
- Oddly shaped asteroid once considered an impact risk for Earth races past the planet Space.com
- Curious ‘Oblong’ Object Detected on Radar Was Closely Tracked by NASA, Officials Say The Debrief
- This oblong asteroid will have a close encounter with Earth in 2040 Interesting Engineering
- Asteroid Nearly Three Times the Length of Statue of Unity Flew Past Us! | Weather.com The Weather Channel
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: zipped
An asteroid just zipped past Earth closer than the moon’s orbit
A bus-sized asteroid made a harmless close pass by our planet on Sunday (Oct. 17).
Asteroid 2021 TG14 passed by Earth at a distance of roughly 155,000 miles (250,000 km). That’s well within the orbit of our moon, which orbits at an average distance of nearly 239,000 miles (385,000 km).
NASA is always interested in close passes like this, just in case astronomers can get some valuable telescope time for a rare close-up glimpse of a small world. Asteroids are leftover fragments from the early solar system, when our neighborhood was a collection of icy and stony small objects (before the planets were formed).
NASA has freely posted all the orbital parameters of the object for the public to see. The agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office works with other government agencies and a network of partner telescopes to keep an eye on potentially threatening objects, but this asteroid isn’t one of them. Scientists have found no imminent threats to our planet.
Related: See the dramatic increase in near-Earth asteroids NASA has discovered (video)
Coincidentally, the approach is taking place as asteroids once again are hitting the news in both fact and fiction. Just on Saturday (Oct. 16), NASA launched its Lucy mission that will eventually focus on asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit, known as Trojans. These asteroids have never been visited up close before.
The agency is also in the middle of an asteroid sample-return mission known as OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer). Its sample return capsule is due to come back to Earth in 2023 bearing bits of a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. NASA’s Psyche mission will also launch in 2022 to study a metal asteroid up close.
These new missions are only the latest in a long line of spacecraft that have swung by small bodies in our solar system, some picking up samples along the way.
In fiction, the Netflix dark comedy “Don’t Look Up” will release in December, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. The film follows a long line of fictional movie asteroids threatening the Earth and catalogs some satirical responses by White House officials (and scientists) to the impending problem.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
A large asteroid known as Apophis zipped silently past the Earth
On Friday, a large asteroid roughly the size of the Eiffel Tower zipped past the Earth. The asteroid posed no hazard to the Earth on this flyby as it was more than 40 times as far away from Earth as the moon. However, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will get much closer to the Earth.
Scientists considered this week’s flyby a dress rehearsal for 2029, when Apophis will get incredibly close to the Earth. That year, Apophis will get closer to the Earth than some of the highest-orbit satellites surrounding the planet. The asteroid measures 1120 feet wide and is made of rock, iron, and nickel.
Scientists believe it’s shaped roughly like a peanut and its near pass by the Earth on Friday gave them a closer opportunity to inspect the asteroid. Apophis was too far away to be seen by the naked eye so scientists used the NASA Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to image the asteroid it flew by.
The planetary radar study was meant to give researchers a baseline for the significantly closer flyby in 2029. Apophis is expected to get as close as 19,800 miles to Earth on its next pass. Scientists say that Apophis has a very complicated spin state that sees the asteroid spinning and tumbling simultaneously.
Interestingly, during its closest approach in 2029, Apophis will be briefly visible by the naked eye over Western Australia. In that area, the asteroid will be as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper. Its closest pass to Earth will happen at 6 PM EDT on April 13, 2029. It won’t hit the Earth in 2029 or on its next pass in 2036. However, there is a slight chance the asteroid hit the Earth in 2068.