Huge asteroid will pass by Earth at the end of May

The asteroid we are talking about is named 7335 (1989 JA). It will pass by our planet at a distance of 4 million km – that is about 10 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Despite this, with a size of up to 1.8 km, this asteroid is still classified by NASA as a “potential hazard”, because it can cause great damage to our planet if Its orbit changed and collided with the Earth.

According to NASA, 7335 (1989 JA) is the largest asteroid among objects that have come relatively close to Earth this year. House’s science It is estimated that this asteroid is moving at about 76,000 km/h, which is 20 times the speed of a bullet.

After passing Earth this time, the next time it returns will be June 23, 2055. At that time, it will be much farther away, with its closest approach still 70 times the distance from us as the Moon.

The asteroid is one of more than 29,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs for short) that NASA tracks annually. NEOs are all objects that can pass through Earth’s orbit at a distance of less than 48 million km. Most of these objects are extremely small, so 7335 (1989 JA) is in fact larger than 99% of the remaining NEOs.

7335 (1989 JA) also belongs to the group of asteroids known as the Apollo group. These are asteroids whose orbits revolve around the Sun while crossing the Earth’s orbit. To date, astronomers have known of the existence of about 15,000 such asteroids.

NASA keeps a close eye on NEOs like these, and recently launched a space mission to test deflecting an asteroid in case such a potential hazard would one day happen. rush towards the Earth.

November 2021, spacecraft DART (short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test/Dual Test of Asteroid Redirection). The spacecraft will collide with the 160-meter diameter asteroid Dimorphos this fall. That collision would not destroy the asteroid, but would rather deflect its orbit slightly.