A large potentially dangerous asteroid is approaching the Earth

02 June 2022, 19:41 | Technologies
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An asteroid three times the size of a blue whale will fly past Earth on June 6. It will move at a speed of 26 thousand kilometers per hour, according to Live Science..

The celestial body has received the designation 2021 GT2, it is expected to pass at a distance of 3.5 million kilometers from our planet. This is about 10 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon..

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Astronomers first spotted this space rock last year. According to their estimates, the diameter of the asteroid is 37-83 meters. Despite the fact that such dimensions seem very large, they are still not enough to cause significant damage to the Earth..

The asteroid belongs to the Aton class, which means that it rotates closer to the Sun than the Earth, and crosses the orbit of our planet from the inside. Astronomers know of 1,800 similar asteroids, most of which are considered potentially hazardous..

Next time 2021 GT2 will approach the Earth on January 26, 2034, then it will pass at a distance of 14.5 million kilometers from the planet.

The asteroid belongs to the class of near-Earth objects. This term refers to celestial bodies that rotate within 1.3 astronomical units (the average distance from the Earth to the Sun) from the star. NASA monitors hundreds of thousands of such objects, predicting their trajectories for hundreds of years to come..

At the moment, scientists do not think that any of the near-Earth objects are a threat to the planet.. However, astronomers want to be prepared for the fact that the trajectory of near-Earth asteroids may change due to some unforeseen event.. For example, a near-Earth asteroid will collide with another object, as a result of which a large amount of space debris will fall into space..

Earlier, astronomers officially confirmed the discovery of another Trojan asteroid of the Earth. It received the designation 2020 XL5 and is the second such celestial body found near our planet..




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