Asteroid 1998 OR2 is approaching Earth, and April 29 will fly 6.3 million kilometers from it, said Pavel Skripnichenko, senior lecturer in the Department of Astronomy at the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the Ural Federal University. However, Anatoly Zaitsev, director general of NP Center for Planetary Defense, told the NSN that an asteroid of this size could be a painful danger.
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The diameter of the object is from 2 to 4 km. The asteroid itself will not crash into the Earth, but it belongs to the class of potentially dangerous. In addition, after hundreds of years, its flight path may change, and then the Earth will face great danger. “If an asteroid of this size falls to Earth, then all these problems that we now have with coronavirus would fade,” the scientist believes.
Zaitsev emphasized that an asteroid can destroy humanity in no time. Its impact will cause colossal waves in the ocean and the onset of an effect similar to “nuclear winter”. “On land – the effect of a nuclear winter: emissions of dust and gases will fall into the atmosphere so that the sun’s rays cannot reach the Earth’s surface and global cooling will begin,” Zaitsev said.
One cannot hope that all asteroids will always fly past Earth. We need to create a global system of protection against asteroids. But this requires a joint decision by the heads of leading states that possess the necessary technologies. But leaders have “enough problems”, so they are not up to it. Although the creation of such a system would cost less in comparison with the damage done by the coronavirus, and would take 5-7 years.
Read the material: Astronomers immediately discovered 19 allegedly interstellar asteroids
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