Crisis averted!
A “missing” 54-million-ton asteroid, big enough to devastate regions of the planet, will not hit Earth in 2024, NASA says.
The US space agency issued the good news after Britain’s BG News published a report claiming there was a 1 in 10 million chance of 2007 FT3 hitting the planet on March 3 and a 1 in 11 chance .5 million from a collision on October 5.
The 328-yard asteroid was first spotted in 2007 before disappearing from the sight of astronomers’ telescopes, but scientists were still able to gather enough information to calculate the risk of 89 potential impacts with Earth this year, according to data from The NASA.
As possible collision dates approached, officials clarified in a statement to The Standard that “there are no known asteroid impact threats to Earth at any time during the next century.
“NASA and its partners diligently watch the skies to find, track and classify asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs), including those that may approach Earth,” a spokesperson said.
The 2007 FT3 space rock is still missing, which is good news because if it were currently launched toward the planet, NASA would be aware of it.
A map showing the predicted orbit of asteroid 2007 FT3 from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
“An important note here is that planetary scientists define approaches to asteroids that are within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit as close approaches,” the statement continued.
The missing asteroid was much smaller than the 10-mile-wide Chicxulub asteroid credited with the catastrophic impact that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs when it crashed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, but it would be large enough to cause regional devastation.
However, according to NASA, there is a 1 in 2,700 chance that Bennu, a small near-Earth asteroid, will collide with Earth in 2182, if it passes through a “gravitational keyhole” in 2135.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration collected samples of the 4.5 billion-year-old carbon-rich space rock last year in an attempt to help scientists unlock the secret of the origins of life on Earth.
Asteroid 2007 FT3 is large enough to devastate regions of Earth if an impact were to occur, something NASA has ruled out. Stoltenberg Studio – stock.adobe.com
In 2022, NASA successfully crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid at 15,000 miles per hour in a test to prepare to deflect a massive space rock that was actually threatening Earth, a scenario that comically went awry in the sci-fi satire. of 2021 “Don’t look up”.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn