Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Asteroid Nereus the size of the Eiffel tower will approach Earth’s orbit. The closest point will be reached by the asteroid on Saturday (11/12) night, around 20:51 WIB.
This asteroid is expected to pass at a speed of 23,700 kilometers per hour at a distance of about 3.86 million kilometers or only 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
With this speed and distance, the celestial body, which is mostly composed of rock and metal minerals, is categorized as a ‘potentially hazardous object’ or known in Astronomy as a Potential Hazardous Object (PHO).
The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) gives two labels to celestial bodies that are around Earth.
First, any extraterrestrial object that is within a distance of 193 million kilometers or less from Earth as a Near Earth Object (NEO) or ‘near Earth object’. Then any fast -moving object within a distance of 7.5 million kilometers as a potentially dangerous object.
The asteroid Nereus cannot be seen with the naked eye as it passes tomorrow.
Reported from Earthsky, the asteroid will only reach a visual magnitude of 12, a number too dim to see with the naked eye. So if you want to see this asteroid, you’ll need at least a telescope 8 inches in diameter or larger.
Nereus movement toward Earth this time called the researchers as the closest in the span of 20 years.
Despite being at a very close distance, this asteroid is expected to only pass without hitting Earth.
Nereus was first identified by researchers in 1982, and the name Nereus is said to be derived from the name of the god of the sea in Greek mythology.
When discovered, this asteroid is estimated to have an orbit that is 1.82 solar years. The orbit brings this asteroid close to Earth almost every 10 years.
Furthermore, celestial bodies such as Nereus have the potential to cause disaster if they are very close and end up crashing into Earth.
Therefore a number of programs to protect the Earth from the dangers of celestial objects are carried out by various space agencies, one of which is NASA.
NASA launched the spacecraft as part of a Multiple Asteroid Diversion Test (DART) mission to change the asteroid’s path by crashing it out of Earth’s orbit.
Besides NASA, China is said to be in the early stages of carrying out a mission to hit an asteroid. It proposed crashing 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu.
Quoted from Live ScienceIt is said that China’s Long March 5 rocket will deflect the asteroid Bennu, eliminating the potential for a collision that could cause a catastrophe on Earth.
(lnn / mik)
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