Giant asteroid that’s coming our way isn’t the end of the world!
4.6 MILLION MILES IS
AN ASTEROID bigger than the Eiffel Tower is heading towards Earth, but experts in Leicester are confident this will not be the end of the world.
In fact, the 1,082ft-long rock – despite being classed as “potentially hazardous” – will pass 4.6 million miles from Earth.
That means Asteroid 4660 Nereus will be about 10 times further away than the Moon as it passes on Saturday at about 14,700mph.
It will be among the closest known giant asteroids to pass us.
Professor Martin Barstow, a protists fessor of astrophysics at the University of Leicester, said: “Collectively, asteroids do pose a potential threat, as the dinosaurs found out 63 million years ago.
“Scientists are interested in groups of asteroids for this reason and it is vital that we track them, because one day we might find one that could cause a problem, although that prospect is unlikely.
“The things that we are really scared about are the things we don’t yet know anything about.
“That’s why we have initiatives to search space to find these objects and the Double Asteroid Redirect Mission to help protect us in the event that one might collide with Earth. “As part of this mission, last month Nasa launched a spacecraft the size of a refrigerator, sending it on a crash course with an asteroid in 2022. “This intentional selfdestruction will tell us if slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid is enough to save Earth in the future if a massive space rock is headed our way.”
Nasa considers anything passing within 120 million miles of Earth as a Near-Earth Object, with thousands tracked by scien
to monitor whether they are on a collision course with our planet.
Fast-moving objects in space that come within 4.65 million miles are considered to be potentially hazardous, with one small change to their trajectory potentially leading to disaster for Earth.
Astronomer Eleanor Helin first spotted Asteroid Nereus in 1982. As it passes by Earth fairly frequently, Nasa and the Japanese space agency have previously considered punching it off-course.
REMARKABLY NEAR MISS,
Collectively, asteroids do pose a potential threat, as the dinosaurs found out
Professor Martin Barstow