Asteroid three times as big as the blue whale is said to be reaching its closest point to EarthMonday (6/6) at 16.35 WIB.
Quoted from Spaceastronomers first detected the space rock last year and estimated its size to be around 37 to 83 meters.
In comparison, according to The Sunthe asteroid is about three to four times the size of the average blue whale, which is about 21 meters or 70 feet long.
Although it is quite large, the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ensures that the asteroid is not dangerous enough for Earth.
With a speed of 26,000 km/h, the asteroid 2021 GT2 will reach its closest approach to Earth as far as 3.5 million kilometers or about 10 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
2021 GT2 is an Aten-class asteroid, which means it orbits the sun closer than Earth or once every 342 days. In addition, its orbital path crosses the Earth’s orbit.
According to astronomers, there are more than 1,800 such asteroids and many of them are considered potentially dangerous.
After June 6, the next close approach to Earth will occur on January 26, 2034. At that time, the asteroid passes within 9 million miles or 14.5 million km from Earth or much further than its current approach.
Asteroids are considered near-Earth objects because they orbit within 1.3 solar astronomical units. To note, the astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun, about 93 million miles, or 149.6 million km.
Until now, NASA is said to continue to monitor the movement of asteroids that have the potential to harm Earth. For example, the unexpected incident in which one near-Earth asteroid collided with another asteroid and rained massive debris across the entire solar system.
Even so, at this time astronomers do not think that any near-Earth object poses a threat. However, NASA is testing to fire a rocket at a large asteroid to get it out of its orbital path and not harm Earth.
In November 2021, NASA launched an asteroid deflecting spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will hit the 530 ft (160 m) wide asteroid Dimorphos in 2022.
(ttf/arh)
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