Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A giant asteroid is said to be heading towards Earth. Reportedly, the Burj Khalifa-sized asteroid will arrive in December.
NASA calls the asteroid 2003 SD220 measuring 791 meters. But it can also be much larger or about 2 km in length than observations at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 2015.
But then NASA came up with a different size, namely 1.6 kilometers. In the end, the United States (US) space agency decided its size was 791 meters in diameter, quoted from the Jerusalem Post, Tuesday (11/23/2021).
It is reported that the asteroid will fly past Earth on December 17, 2021. When that happens, it is 5.4 million kilometers from Earth at a speed of 5.6 km/s.
The distance is quite far when compared to Earth and the Moon which is 385 thousand km and does not seem to pose a threat to the inhabitants of this planet. However, the object is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA).
The asteroid is classified as PHA because of its size and distance, which is said to be close to Earth. Even according to NASA, Earth will continue to be safe in the next 100 years from the threat of asteroids.
Asteroids are included in the Aten class, which means their orbits cross the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. But the space object spends most of its time in it, which is likely to strike Earth at any time in the future although it’s not a problem at the moment according to calculations.
Meanwhile in other news, asteroid exploration will be carried out by the United Arab Emirates which announced its new mission plan. Thus becoming the first Arab country to successfully land a spacecraft on an asteroid.
The mission is scheduled to launch in 2028. Planned to have seven years of development time for the spacecraft, the mission sees the UAE explore Venus and its seven asteroids and culminate in the 2033 landing.
(npb/roy)
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