Giant asteroid is about to fly past Earth
Scientists say an asteroid 20 times larger than the one that caused a huge explosion in Russia will approach Earth on January 26.
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| Simulation of an asteroid flying towards Earth. Photo: ESA |
Asteroid 2004 BL86 is about 400 - 1,000 meters in diameter. It was discovered by the Lincoln Asteroid Research Center (LINEAR) on January 30 last year. 2004 BL86 is expected to travel at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers, three times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
According to RT, a space object is potentially dangerous if it passes through Earth's orbit at a distance of less than 7.4 million km (approximately 19.5 times the distance from Earth to the Moon) and has a diameter exceeding 100-150 m. Objects of this size are large enough to cause unprecedented devastation or a major tsunami risk if they fall into the sea.
However, astronomers predict that there is no risk of 2004 BL86 colliding with our planet. The Goldstone Observatory, located in the Mojave Desert in California, USA, will monitor 2004 BL86 as it moves close to Earth.
On February 15, 2013, a meteorite measuring about 17 meters in diameter entered the atmosphere at a speed of 64,000 km/h and exploded at an altitude of 19-24 km above the ground. The collision caused a meteor shower in the sky over the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Kyrgan and Sverdlovsk provinces, as well as many localities along the Ural Mountains.
The energy contained in the meteorite when it exploded is estimated to be equivalent to the explosion of about 440-500,000 tons of TNT, and 30 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
According to VnExpress
