Asteroid 388945 2008 TZ3 LIVE — ‘Potentially hazardous asteroid bigger than Empire State Building’ to appro… – The Sun
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AN ASTEROID bigger than the Empire State Building is predicted to glide by Earth on Sunday.
The US space agency Nasa expects Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) to pass Earth at around 5.18pm ET and 9.18pm GMT.
The giant space rock is predicted to be up to 1,608 feet wide. By comparison, New York’s Empire State Building stands at 1,454 feet tall.
Although Asteroid 388945 should pass us from a distance of about 3.5million miles away, it is still considered a possible threat.
If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles of our planet and is over a certain size, it’s considered "potentially hazardous" by cautious space agencies.
Read our Asteroid 388945 2008 TZ3 live blog for the latest news and updates…
New image from Nasa reveals most distant star
Nasa recently revealed the most distant star ever observed in a new image.
The US space agency recently shared a photo of a star dubbed WHL0137-LS – the image is proof of the farthest detection of a star yet.
Year 2880 looking up, part three
According to Yahoo, the asteroid doesn’t look to be an immediate risk to Earth in the year 2880.
Scientists at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and the European Space Agency’s NEO Coordination Office published the most recent update on 1950 DA on March 29, 2022, which drastically reduced the asteroid’s hazard.
The impact risk has now been reduced from one in 8,000 to one in 30,000.
On the Palermo Scale, it has also gone from a -1.4 to a -2.0. They’d probably eliminate 1950 DA from their danger lists entirely if it was any lower.
Year 2880 looking up, part two
It was lucky that scientists caught sight of the asteroid at the right time as they were able to direct the Goldstone and Arecibo radio telescopes towards it, according to Yahoo.
By bouncing radar rays off the surface of 1950 DA, they were able to get a better look at its size and form, as well as learn more about how it traveled through space.
Based on these findings, a new depiction of 1950 DA’s orbit was created, as well as a fresh evaluation of its hazard to Earth.
As a result, NASA’s Sentry Impact Risk table, which lists all known asteroids with a probability of colliding with Earth in the future, abruptly pushed 1950 DA to the top.
In reality, 1950 DA was the most deadly asteroid known from 2014 until the present.
Year 2880 is looking up
On February 23, 1950, asteroid 29075 (1950 DA) was discovered; a 1.3-kilometer diameter space rock.
Astronomers lost sight of it after that, for slightly over 50 years, due to the timing of its orbit.
It was only discovered again on December 31, 2000, almost three months before the asteroid will pass Earth safely at a distance of roughly 8million kilometers.
What spacecraft first visited an asteroid?
Galileo, NASA’s spacecraft, was the first to visit an asteroid, passing by asteroids Gaspra and Ida, according to Space.com.
If an asteroid hit the Earth, conclusion
“So you burn things, kill everything in the ocean, and freeze the Earth, and it goes through about two years of constant winter,” Scharringhausen added.
He doesn’t think that all life on Earth would die after a large asteroid impact, since some small creatures survived the asteroid strike that once killed the dinosaurs.
Scharringhausen explained: “Not everything will die. If we’re thinking about people, the way to survive would be to get underground.”
“You could maybe ride it out in a bunker if you’ve got the supplies to make it through that period of winter where you can’t grow any edible food.”
“Maybe the finicky crops that humans like to grow won’t come through it so well, but there’s that seed repository, so if those are well-protected enough, you could get agriculture restarted.”
What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth, continued
Experts think we’d experience fires, shock waves, heat radiation, a large crater, acid rain, and giant tsunamis if such an asteroid ended up hitting the water.
Britt Scharringhausen, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Beloit College, told Inverse: “All of the ash from the fires and all of the finer-grain debris from the impact will hang out in the atmosphere for a long time, and we get what’s called an impact winter.”
“It’s going to block the sunlight, and all that ash falling into the ocean acidifies the top layers.”
What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth?
Depending on the size of the space rock, an asteroid impact on the Earth could be an extinction-level event, and researchers have created simulations to see just how bad it could be.
Not all asteroids would mean the end of humanity and, in fact, a space rock would have to be pretty large to kill us all.
If an asteroid the size of the one that likely killed the dinosaurs hit Earth today, things would instantly change due to the force of the impact and its knock-on effect on the environment.
What is considered a ‘close approach’?
If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles of Earth and is over a certain size, it is considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.
The asteroid should shoot past from its safe distance at a speed of just under 19,000 miles per hour.
How are asteroids named?
A provisional designation is given to a freshly found asteroid that consists of the year of discovery and an alphanumeric number denoting the half-month of finding and the sequence within that half-month.
Once the orbit of an asteroid has been established, it is assigned a number and, in certain cases, a name, according to Open.edu.
When a name is repeated in running text, it is typical to omit the number entirely or to drop it after the first mention.
In addition, the discoverer of the asteroid can suggest a name within the International Astronomical Union’s standards.
What is a meteorite?
If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vaporize and becomes a meteor.
On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up, and it may look like a fireball or “shooting star.”
If a meteoroid doesn’t vaporize completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, however, it can land on Earth and becomes a meteorite.
Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets, part three
Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun.
However, rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them as a result of the ice and dust vaporizing.
“They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet,” Nasa reported.
Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets, continued
When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids.
“Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as ‘space rocks,’” Nasa reported.
Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets
An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun.
They are “rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago,” Nasa reveals.
Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter).
But they can be found anywhere, including in a path that can impact Earth.
Nasa monitors thousands of asteroids
Nasa has its eye on nearly 28,000 known near-Earth asteroids, and discoveries of new asteroids are said to go up by their thousands each year.
On that note, Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.
Giant asteroids could be spotted early
Giant asteroids that could potentially endanger the Earth can be spotted thanks to a special system.
The Scout monitoring system, a small piece of technology the size of a shoebox, may be able to save the earth from catastrophic disasters.
Using new “Scout” monitoring technologies, scientists were able to spot an asteroid heading toward earth on March 11, and accurately predict its patterns.
Plans to save Earth, continued
Nasa said: “DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.”
The DART craft should slam into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September with the aim of moving it off course.
Plans to save Earth from an asteroid
Some experts are worried that Earth isn’t yet ready to defend itself from potentially deadly asteroids.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk once sparked concern by tweeting: “a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense.”
Nasa is looking into some defence methods though.
It recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
Nasa’s ‘eyes on asteroids’
Nasa’s website has an interactive page called “eyes on asteroids” where you can see the next few closest approaches of asteroids to Earth.
As of the afternoon of May 13, it lists Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) as one of the next five closest approaches to Earth.
It says it should pass Earth around 5.18pm ET today, May 15.
NEO mission
Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.
If the agency does so, it will finally have a spacecraft dedicated only to hunting asteroids.
It’s hoped that the NEO Surveyor craft will find 90 percent of asteroids that are 460 feet or larger within the first decade of its mission.
What is a ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid, continued
An asteroid would also need to be 460 feet or larger in size to be considered potentially hazardous by Nasa.
Thousands of near-earth objects (NEOs) are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet.
Nasa lists them in its NEO Earth Close Approaches table.
What is a ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid?
Nasa’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) explains on its website: “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.”
Large fast-moving space objects that come within 4.65 million miles of Earth are considered to be “potentially hazardous” by cautious space organizations.
One small change to their trajectories could spell disaster for Earth.
Is this asteroid ‘potentially hazardous’?
If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles and is over a certain size, it’s considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.
Sunday’s asteroid fits this description.
‘Close approach’ expected
Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) should pass us from a distance of about 3.5million miles away.
That may sound pretty far away but in the grand scheme of space, it isn’t a large distance at all.
That’s why Nasa has still flagged it as a “close approach."
How fast is the asteroid moving?
Asteroid 388945 2008 TZ3 should shoot past Earth from its safe distance at a speed of just over 18,000 miles per hour.
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May 15, 2022 at 10:50AM