Burj Khalifa-sized asteroid is heading for Earth! No, you don’t have to worry about the apocalypse, that’s why

The Burj Khalifa-sized asteroid is composed mainly of embedded ice and dust particles and approaches Earth when pushed by its gravitational pull. (Image IE)

Social media is abuzz with news of a huge asteroid approaching Earth with doomsday scenarios under construction, causing all users to panic. However, the truth of the matter is not that such an impending disaster was predicted by the space agencies. The asteroid named 153201 (2000 WO107) will whiz past the Earth from a safe distance after being at the closest point around 10.38 am IST on 29 November.

NASA has ruled out any possibility of a threat to civilization as such cases occur once every million years. The asteroid is compared to the United Arab Emirates ‘Burj Khalifa’ skyscraper

Size of asteroid 153201 (2000 WO107)

This asteroid, according to the website of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was discovered in 2000. It is 800m tall and has a diameter of 500m.

The Burj Khalifa-sized asteroid is mainly composed of embedded ice and dust particles and approaches Earth when pushed by its gravitational pull to enter their orbit. They are classified as objects close to the Earth. It is also listed as a potentially dangerous asteroid based on its potential to make threatening approaches to Earth. According to NASA, any celestial object with a minimum orbital intersection distance of 0.05 au has been tagged as a potentially dangerous asteroid.

Are there any reasons for concern about asteroid 153201 (200 WO107) approaching Earth?

This asteroid in the news will now maintain a distance of over 43 lakh km as it traverses Earth. This distance is greater than the distance between the Earth and the Moon, so there is no reason to worry.

The Earth has millions of asteroids rotating with it in their orbit but no more than 1 meter in diameter and therefore is not considered dangerous even if they hit the planet. However, this asteroid is 500 meters in diameter and those that can cause destruction are larger than 30 meters. According to NASA’s Near-Earth Observation Program, those that are more than 140 meters or larger can cause high-level devastation for their size (almost like a small football stadium). But the agency also believes that no asteroid of this type has any chance of hitting Earth in the next 100 years.

However, a meteoroid – a small part of an asteroid or comet – can impact Earth once every 2000 years and could cause severe damage in a particular area it hits. Asteroids up to 1 km in diameter are extremely rare and their chances of impacting the planet are even lower, such as once every 100,000 years. The likelihood of comets falling and causing damage is as rare as once every 500,000 years.

The last time such catastrophic damage occurred was 66 million years ago, when a 10km width of the asteroid, the Chicxulub impactor struck Earth and wiped the dinosaur species from the planet.

Can space agencies deflect approaching asteroids?

Scientists have suggested several ways to deflect the asteroid away from Earth, causing the asteroid to explode by hitting it from a spacecraft before it hits Earth. The largest measure taken so far is the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment in collaboration with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The mission’s target was Didymos, an asteroid that could pose a significant threat to Earth in the future. The asteroid system approached closer to Earth in November 2003 with a distance of 7.18 million km. It may not get close until November 2123, according to space agencies.

NASA has started construction of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test which will be launched next year and will hit an asteroid smaller than the Didymos system. ESA’s Hera will be launched in 2024 and will reach the Didymos system after three years to find out what impact can cause a collision between DAT and a Didymos asteroid and to what extent the asteroid can change its trajectory to know its chances of hitting the earth.