The US adopted a new planetary defense strategy just days before a series of sufficiently large asteroids approached the planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on Thursday (April 6th) that 3 rather large asteroids should approach Earth. Before that, 2 more asteroids successfully passed by our planet. This is all happening against the backdrop of Forbes’ announcement that the White House is adopting a new strategy for planetary defense against potentially dangerous space objects.
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On Wednesday, April 5, two relatively small asteroids passed near Earth, and on Thursday, June 6, three more large space rocks should fly by at a close distance from Earth by space standards, according to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. One of them falls into the category of potentially dangerous.
Asteroids that have already passed Earth on April 5:
- The asteroid named 2023 GE has a width of 11 meters and flew 913 thousand km from the side of the Earth. That’s almost twice the distance of the Moon from our planet.
- The 20-metre asteroid 2023 FQ7 passed Earth at a distance of 5.75 million km.
Asteroids approaching Earth on April 6:
- The largest of the three asteroids flying toward us, designated 2023 FM, will be closest to Earth. Its size is estimated at 146 meters, which is 1.5 times the size of a football field. It must pass the earth at a distance of 3 million km. At the same time, this space stone is potentially dangerous to our planet, given its size.
- It is a 30-meter asteroid 2023 FE4, and this is the approximate height of a 9-story building, it should pass the planet at a distance of 3.69 million km.
- The latest in this trio of space rocks is the 46-metre asteroid 2023 FZ3, which is comparable in size to a large airplane. It should fly the world at a distance of 4.19 million km.
As mentioned above, NASA has announced that you shouldn’t worry about these asteroids because none of them should fall on our planet. But if that happens, they could cause a large-scale local disaster in their area of influence, given their size.
NASA is constantly assessing the risks associated with near-Earth asteroids approaching more than 7.5 million km from our planet. However, for such asteroids to be considered a dangerous space rock, their dimensions must be at least 140 meters.
Therefore, only the asteroid 2023 FM from the above list is such that if it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it can reach the surface and release a large amount of energy as a result of the impact. Such a blast wave could easily wipe out a large metropolis or several small cities from the face of the Earth.
As for the potential impact of the 2023 FE4 and 2023 FZ3 asteroids with Earth, they are likely to explode in the atmosphere, but they will disintegrate in the process, according to scientists. And this debris can cause serious damage.
New planetary defense strategy
On April 3, the White House announced a new planetary defense strategy to help detect, prepare for and prevent dangerous asteroid impacts on Earth. This strategy includes six main goals for the next ten years. In particular, we are talking about intensifying efforts to detect potentially dangerous space objects, strengthening international cooperation, and developing tools to repel such potential space threats.
What are asteroids and how many have been discovered?
Asteroids are space rocks orbiting the sun. They are remnants of the building materials that made up our solar system, including planets and moons. Although this was more than 4.5 million years ago, asteroids still orbit our star, mostly between Mars and Jupiter.
Scientists now have the technology to very accurately predict the flight path of a given space rock, especially when it comes to their approach to Earth. So far, NASA says not a single asteroid should hit our planet until the end of the 21st century. But scientists have only found 40% of dangerous asteroids that can destroy major metropolitan areas like New York.
To date, scientists have discovered 1,278,331 asteroids, but they are more numerous, according to NASA. By the way, the total mass of all these asteroids is actually less than the mass of the moon.
Focus He has already written that scientists describe what would happen if the nearly 1km-wide asteroid Ryugu were to fall to Earth.
Moreover Focus He wrote that there are 5 asteroids that are likely to hit our planet in the future.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.