Big asteroid “Spooky” skims along the earth – VRT News

The asteroid, estimated to be she is just about 400 meters in diameter, will the earth closest approach of our time around 18 pm , up to at about 480,000 km. That is more than the average distance from the Earth to the moon – about 384 000 kilometers – but cosmic standards it is still pretty close. The asteroid shaves past at a speed of about 35 kilometers per second.

Astronomers hope to gather radar images and other data during flight, a rare opportunity for them. Usually they must therefore rely on expensive space probes, approaching comet, an asteroid now coming to us. The scientists expect to learn more about the shape of the asteroid, its dimensions, the characteristics of its surface and other features.

“The fact that 2015 TB145 us as close approaching, along with its size, suggesting that they will be one of the best asteroids to take radar images, which we will see in the coming years, “said Lance Brenner, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California at NASA Web site.

The path of the asteroid 2015 TB145 (right). The times are GMT, and an hour for our time must be added there. (Illustration: NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Crash

Apart from the scientific data, the encounter with the asteroid engineers can also help to develop better techniques to keep such objects in the eye, and to work out measures against asteroids have a job that would bring them into conflict with the earth.

It is raining constant small space rocks on the earth, most of which fall apart and burn up in the atmosphere. Occasionally, however, there is also a larger one into the atmosphere does not burns. So hit 65 million years ago an asteroid about 10 kilometers in diameter at what is now the Yucatan Peninsula. That led to a global catastrophe, which brought an end to the dinosaurs and about 75 percent of all life forms on earth.

More recently, in February 2013, broke a 20-meter asteroid into pieces over Chelyabinsk in Russia. In addition raaktebn buildings damaged and jumps numerous windows, and more than 1,000 people were injured by flying debris.

The agency is working to identify all potentially dangerous asteroids and comets that approach Earth to 48 million kilometers, but the area continues to surprise.

For example, asteroid 2015 TB145 only discovered three weeks ago by NASA astronomers. “That such a large object, which would be able to inflict considerable damage if it would affect our planet, just 21 days before it was discovered approaching our closest, demonstrates the need for the night sky all the time keep an eye on, “said Detlef Koschny, an astronomer with the European Space Agency ESA in a statement.