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NASA Warns Two Asteroids Could Cause Atmospheric Explosion Over Earth This Week
NASA Warns Two Asteroids Could Cause Atmospheric Explosion Over Earth This Week
Yes, we are now dealing with multiple asteroids hurtling towards Earth.
(TMU) — As if 2020 weren’t overwhelming enough, in addition to the potential start of World War 3, the massive fires in Australia, the locust plague in the Middle East and Africa, and the novel coronavirus, we are now dealing with multiple asteroids hurtling towards Earth. One of the asteroids may even collide with Earth’s atmosphere resulting in an atmospheric explosion tonight!
Two asteroids following Earth’s intersecting orbit known as 2020 EF and 2020 DP4 are approaching the planet, and information collected by NASA indicates the space rocks are big enough to create violent explosions in the atmosphere if they come too close to the Earth.
The asteroids are being closely monitored by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
According to a report by IB Times, CNEOS estimates the 2020 EF asteroid has a diameter of 98 feet, making it a little longer than the distance between baseball diamond bases, with a velocity of 10,000 mph.
CNEOS sates that 2020 EF is what is known as an Aten asteroid, which means the object follows a normal orbit that crosses Earth’s path. NASA’s orbit diagram for 2020 EF shows the asteroid mimics a very wide orbit around the sun and almost follows the exact same path as Earth. The good news is NASA states in their diagram that the asteroid will have multiple near-approaches between 2020 EF and our planet—but it won’t hit us.Get the latest from The Mind Unleashed in your inbox. Sign up right here.
According to NASA, as a result of their size, 2020 EF will most likely not cause an impact event. Instead, it will break up into pieces if it enters Earth’s atmosphere. However, it will still cause an explosion in the sky that could be dangerous.
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8 ‘potentially hazardous asteroids’ near Earth discovered by NASA
8 ‘potentially hazardous asteroids’ near Earth discovered by NASA
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) telescope, which made a comeback in 2013 after going into hibernation mode in 2011, has come up with a second year’s worth of survey data on Earth’s surroundings that was published in a report by NASA.
“Eight of the objects discovered in the past year have been classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), based on their size and how closely their orbits approach Earth,” the report goes.
In what NASA described as a “milestone” mission, the telescope, which is tasked with detecting, tracking, and characterizing asteroids and comets, detected a total of 439 NEOs (near-Earth objects) in 2015, of which 72 were newly discovered.
“NEOWISE discovers large, dark, near-Earth objects, complementing our network of ground-based telescopes operating at visible-light wavelengths. On average, these objects are many hundreds of meters across,” said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE’s principal investigator.
The NEOWISE’s 16-inch (40-cm) telescope and infrared cameras snapped as many as 5.1 million shots over the past year. It has processed information on more than 19,000 asteroids and comets, including four new ones. The data obtained by the mission also looks into the origins of the discovered objects.
“By studying the distribution of lighter- and darker-colored material, NEOWISE data give us a better understanding of the origins of the NEOs, originating from either different parts of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or the icier comet populations,” said James Bauer, the mission’s deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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