[ad_1]
A half-mile-long “potentially dangerous asteroid” will hit Earth this weekend, giving interested astronomers a chance to see it fly.
The space rock, larger than most skyscrapers in the world, will overflow at dawn on Sunday 29 November.
Due to the relatively close flyby, the asteroid has been identified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid” called asteroid 2000 WO107, but no impact hazard has been identified and its orbital path is well known.
When it crosses the sky on Sunday, it will be about 11 times farther from earth than the moon and will travel at 56,600 miles per hour.
To get Hull Live headlines every day, please enter your email address in the registration box just below the image at the top of this article.
Hall astronomer Professor Brad Gibson, director of EA’s Millennial Center for Astrophysics, said the asteroid would be one of the largest within ten million miles of Earth this decade.
“While it sounds like a lot, when you compare it to the enormous size of the solar system’s incredible size, it’s actually a very short distance.”
“However, it raises questions about how the impact of the conflict on Earth will be affected.
“Fortunately, it is not as close as the impact on dinosaurs of 5 million years ago, but it would be large enough to destroy the size of almost every region of Europe.”
In terms of size, the asteroid that caused the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia – where 830 square miles of forest flattened out – was one-tenth the size of asteroid 2000 WO107.
Although the rock will not be visible to the naked eye, amateur astronomers will only be able to locate it using a relatively small or larger eight-inch telescope.
It will look like a slow moving star and should pass overhead at 5.08am on Sunday morning.
Professor Gibson said: “There is a profound excitement to be felt by asteroids, because each piece of rock comes from the very beginning of our solar system.
“These are basically primitive fossils of the creation of the solar system. When you go in and examine the various chemical elements and isotopes it contains, you’ll get an instant snapshot of what our solar system looked like five billion years ago. “
Find the latest weather forecast for your area
Hal University is fortunate to have this special “Moon Rock” variety. As part of an immersive 3D experience designed to explore the history of the moon, students will have the opportunity to view two pieces, one inch in diameter and the original part of the moon.
Additionally, they purchased a piece of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which has become the largest object to enter Earth’s atmosphere since the 1986 Tunguska event.
Source link