Jakarta –
Viral narrative asteroid will crash Earth on October 5, 2024. The asteroid in question is asteroid 2007 FT3 which is estimated to have a power equivalent to 2.6 billion tons of TNT.
Launch IFL ScienceMonday (8/1/2024) FT3 2007 is an asteroid that was first observed in 2007 and is included in NASA’s Sentry Risk Table which contains objects that have the potential to impact Earth. It is also a ‘lost’ asteroid, as it was only visible for 1.2 days before disappearing from NASA’s view. The 314 meter asteroid became too faint and has not been seen since.
Recently, the asteroid 2007 FT3 was re-observed at 14 points of its arc over the past two days, allowing astronomers to calculate its orbit and look for potential collisions between Earth and Earth. In doing so, NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies identified 89 potential impacts, including one impact that occurred on October 5, 2024.
Even though it sounds a bit worrying, there is actually nothing to be afraid of. One of the potential impact points was predicted to occur in 2019, but did not occur.
So far, astronomers have been able to predict the orbits of known objects up to about 100 years into the future. The good news is that ‘no known asteroid larger than 140 meters has a significant chance of hitting Earth in the next 100 years’ according to NASA.
Responding specifically to the claims about 2007 FT3, NASA reiterated its response.
“There is no known threat of asteroid impact to Earth in the next century. NASA and its partners diligently scan the sky to find, track, and categorize asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs), including objects that may come close to Earth,” a NASA spokesperson told The Standard.
“The important note here is that planetary scientists define an asteroid approach within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit as a close approach. The larger an asteroid is, the easier it is for our planetary defense experts to find it, meaning that its orbit to the sun is usually very easy to recognize and understand for years or even decades,” concluded NASA.
Watch the video “Scientists in England Start Examining Samples of the Asteroid Bennu”
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2024-01-08 09:45:16
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