A asteroid the size of a building passed the Earth a safe distance on Monday (9/5) night.
Quoted from Space, the asteroid coded 467460 (2006 JF42) passed at a distance of about 5.7 million kilometers from Earth. The data was obtained from the Near-Earth Object Research Center belonging to the United States Space Agency (NASA).
The asteroid is estimated to have a length of about 380 to 860 meters. For your information, the tallest building in Jakarta, the Gama Tower, only has a height of 285.5 meters.
Although only passing, the asteroid is considered a symbol of changes in the Solar System. NASA also continues to monitor celestial bodies that pass near Earth.
NASA itself is known to have classified several asteroids as “potentially hazardous” to Earth. The term appears related because the size of the asteroid is greater than 150 meters with a distance approaching Earth.
However, that does not mean humans should panic. The reason is, NASA has not found signs of a significant threat from a number of these dangerous asteroids. In fact, NASA has been looking for these signs for decades.
The list of potentially dangerous asteroids is updated from time to time. For example, NASA removed the asteroid Apophis from the list in 2021. The latest observations show that the asteroid does not pose any threat to Earth in the next 100 years.
Scientists are also increasingly proficient at finding large asteroids like 2006 JF42 as telescope technology advances.
NASA is also developing a defense technology strategy as a precaution. For example, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which aims to hit a moonlet (a small celestial body revolving around a planet) later this year, aims to redirect its path around the asteroid.
(nto/arh)
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