Solopos.com, JAKARTA-NASA warns that an asteroid the size of the Leaning Tower of Pisa could hit Earth in 2046 Valentine’s Day.
The asteroid, which is named 2023 DW, has a 1 in 560 chance of hitting Earth on February 14 at 4:44 p.m. ET. However, it is not yet known where he will fall.
The predicted target zone stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and west to the east coast of the US with possibly Los Angeles, Hawaii and Washington DC.
2023 DW’s 165-foot collision with our planet would be comparable to the 12-megaton Tunguska event that crashed into Siberia 114 years ago.
This 160-foot asteroid caused a nuclear explosion that would have destroyed a large metropolitan area but landed in a forest, leveling more than 80 million trees.
NASA notes that “several weeks of data will be required to reduce uncertainty and adequately predict its orbit for years into the future.” The probability of an asteroid hitting Earth has changed over the past week.
On March 1, an Italian astronomer with NASA showed a one in 1.2000 chance, but the odds increased a day later to one in 710 and are now one in 560.
As of March 7, 2023, its orbital analysis is just 62 observations spanning 6.8487 days through March 4, 2023. 2023 DW currently tops NASA’s Risk List with 1 on the Torino scale, meaning there is no reason for public concern at this time.
“A routine discovery in which a near-Earth pass is not expected to pose an unusual level of danger,” reads the description on the Torino scale. “Current calculations show the probability of a collision is highly unlikely without cause for public concern or public concern. New telescopic observations will likely lead to reassignment to Level 0.”
“Orbital analysts will continue to monitor asteroid 2023 DW and update predictions as more data comes in,” NASA tweeted.
While 2023 DW sits at 1, it could go as high as 10, labeled a ‘Specific Collision.’ “A collision is certain, capable of causing a global climate catastrophe that could threaten the future of civilization as we know it, impacting either land or sea,” the description reads.
“Such events occur on average once per 100,000 years, or less often.” However, NASA notes it will warn the public if DW 2023 reaches a magnitude 3. According to LiveScience, a direct impact from such a rock would not be as catastrophic as the 7.5-mile (12-kilometer) wide dinosaur-killing asteroid that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago. Then.
However, DW 2023 could still cause extensive damage if it lands near a large city or densely populated area. A meteor less than half the size of DW 2023 exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, generating a shockwave that damaged thousands of buildings and injured around 1,500 people.
While an impact with DW 2023 is highly unlikely, scientists are quickly developing methods to protect Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids like this one.
Last week, NASA scientists published four studies confirming that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission had successfully altered the small asteroid’s trajectory after crashing a spacecraft directly into it.
Follow-up missions are currently being worked on to further hone the effectiveness of this planetary defense technique. The last significant impact occurred on February 15, 2013, which is known as Chelyabinsk. 2023 DW is more than twice the size of the asteroid that hit Chelyabinsk.
The zone predicted to be targeted stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and west to the east coast of the US with possibly Los Angeles, Hawaii and Washington DC.
This article has been published on Bisnis.com by title “Ouch! An Asteroid The Size Of The Tower Of Pisa Will Hit Earth In 2046, Triggering A 12 Megaton Explosion”
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