NASA issued a double warning as two massive asteroids rushed towards Earth at a scary speed to make a close flyby on August 1.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the asteroids – 2024 OE and 2024 OO – are not an immediate threat to Earth and are likely to pass by the planet silently.
The sizes of the two asteroids, 2024 OE and 2024 OO, are 190 feet and 88 feet in diameter, respectively, which is roughly as big as a commercial aeroplane.
The larger asteroid is expected to pass by Earth at a safe distance of about 1.26 million miles and the smaller one at a distance of 925,000 miles.
These distances are farther from the Moon’s orbit which means that our planet will remain safe as of now. Such flybys of the asteroids help the scientists in understanding the solar system’s dynamic nature.
Asteroids are the remnants of the early solar system which are constantly in motion and some of them at times venture close to the path of the Earth.
How is NASA tracking asteroids?
NASA, along with other space agencies, has established a network of telescopes and advanced computing for identifying near-Earth objects (NEOs).
Even though many of the NEOs don’t come very near to Earth, some of them do come at a scary distance and get tagged as potentially hazardous asteroids which need more attention.
Such asteroids are more than 460 feet (140 metres) in size and their orbits bring them within a distance of 7.5 million kilometres from Earth
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has been monitoring all the NEOs and looking for any potential impact risks.
The Minor Planet Centre’s databases provided information regarding the orbital position of these asteroids.
The major chunk of the data is provided by NASA-funded observatories such as Pan-STARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey, and NASA’s NEOWISE mission.
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The NEO Surveyor mission will bolster future observations. Planetary radar projects like JPL’s Goldstone Solar System Radar Group also play an important role in tracking the asteroids.
According to NASA, meteorites as big as a car come close to Earth every year and those as big as football fields cross the planet once every 2000 years.
The impact of an asteroid is understood by its mass, speed, angle of entry, and if it hits the Earth, then where.
(With inputs from agencies)