Asteroid flies 30 times closer to Earth than the Moon

Astronomers discovered an asteroid the size of a car, making its closest approach to Earth at 1:28:42 on April 12, Hanoi time, at a distance of 18,700 km.

The orbit of asteroid 2024 GJ2. Photo: NASA

Asteroid 2024 GJ2 is as big as a car. After discovering the object three days ago, astronomers calculated that it flew close to Earth at a distance of 19,300 km on April 11, just 3% of the distance between Earth and the Moon. 2024 GJ2 is 2.5 - 5 meters in size, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). This means the asteroid would burn up in Earth's atmosphere if its orbit directly crossed the planet, according to Space .

2024 GJ2’s next close flyby will be in 2093, according to ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Center. When that happens, it won’t come as close to Earth as it did this time. Instead, it will be 10 times farther away, at 205,947 kilometers (125,000 miles), or about half the distance from Earth to the moon.

Asteroids are small meteoroids that orbit the sun. NASA estimates that there are 1,113,527 asteroids in the solar system, including nearly 35,000 near-Earth asteroids. They orbit the sun and are concentrated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, because they are relatively small, asteroids are susceptible to gravity and have orbits that intersect with the orbits of planets, says Jay Tate, director of the Spaceguard Observatory in the UK. Most asteroids range in size from 10 meters to 529 kilometers.

An Khang (According to Space )

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/phat-hien-tieu-hanh-tinh-bay-rat-gan-trai-dat-4733310.html