An asteroid is set to flyby dangerously close to Earth today, NASA has warned.
The asteroid, named 2024 MT-1, is hurtling towards Earth at a speed of more than 40,000 miles per hour.
However, NASA has assured that the asteroid poses no threat to life on Earth.
Asteroid simulation exerciseNASA tracks asteroids that are likely to come near our planet and pose a threat.
However, experts say that Earth is not at risk of being hit by these asteroid pieces.
An asteroid is set to flyby dangerously close to Earth today, NASA has warned. The asteroid, named 2024 MT-1, is hurtling towards Earth at a speed of more than 40,000 miles per hour. At its closest point, the asteroid will be just 936,000 miles away from our planet. However, NASA has assured that the asteroid poses no threat to life on Earth.
The asteroid measures about 79 metres in width and circles the sun in about 1.2 years. However, its size is not concerning to NASA as the size and the distance do not conform to the space agency's criteria of "potentially hazardous object." Only an object larger than 150 metres that comes within a 4.6 million-mile radius of Earth is placed in the category.
"The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don’t bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact, but a small fraction of them – called potentially hazardous asteroids – require more attention," NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology says.
Meanwhile, asteroid 2024 JJ25 is on the radar of NASA and was spotted by astronomers in Hawaii on May 2. It made its closest approach to Earth on July 3.
Asteroid simulation exercise
NASA tracks asteroids that are likely to come near our planet and pose a threat. To understand more about an asteroid impact scenario, NASA recently held a simulation exercise where experts were asked to come with ways to prevent an asteroid strike. They also pointed out the problems one might face while trying to avoid an impact.
The biggest problem, as per a summary released by NASA which contained thoughts of the participants from US government agencies and international planetary defense experts, was the possible politics. They fear that the government might not be willing to fund an asteroid mission where the likelihood of the space body hitting Earth is not 100 per cent.
They fear that even if NASA has enough time, changing governments might get in the way of relevant action.
DART mission
In 2022, NASA carried out the DART mission and hit an asteroid to practice striking one in case it poses a threat to Earth. The 1,200-pound DART spacecraft was launched into the asteroid Dimorphos, with over 1,000 tons of dust and rock blasting off of it. Several boulders went floating into space and now might hit Mars, creating several craters. However, experts say that Earth is not at risk of being hit by these asteroid pieces.
