Asteroid 2020 QG about the size of SUV flew 'closest-ever' to Earth: NASA

On August 16, a tiny asteroid, about size of an SUV flew closest to earth and was detected by NASA funded survey, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a release. At a distance of 1,830 miles from earth, miniature asteroid kwn as 2020 QG came at Earth’s vicinity that ‘Near-Earth Asteroid’, NEA, ever has. Setting a record, tiny asteroid crossed past Earth at 2,950 kilometers above sourn Indian Ocean at 12:08 a.m. EDT (Saturday, August 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT).

[ circled streak in center of this im is asteroid 2020 QG, which came closer to Earth than any or n-impacting asteroid on record. It was detected by Zwicky Transient Facility. Credit: ZTF/Caltech Optical Observatories]

Asteroid 2020 QG, which is extremely small in size, flew roughly 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) across and might have transformed into a “fireball”, NASA speculated, from previous year’s research. asteroid was on “impact trajectory,” NASA said, in a shocking statement. Impacts by a 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) asteroid have resulted in extinction-level event in Earth’s past history due to extensive biosphere destruction. However, 2020 QG departed earth’s atmosphere much like majority of NEA asteroids that safely cross earth. But never before an asteroid has journeyed at this proximity, as per NASA. “By some estimates, re are hundreds of millions of small asteroids size of 2020 QG, but y are extremely hard to discover until y get very close to Earth,” NASA wrote in statement. 

It’s quite an accomplishment to find se tiny close-in asteroids in first place, because y pass by so fast, Chodas said, in NASA’s release. re’s typically only a short window of a couple of days before or after close approach when this small of an asteroid is close eugh to Earth to be bright eugh but t so close that it moves too fast in sky to be detected by a telescope, he added.

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Director of Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Sourn California, Paul Chodas, said, “It’s really cool to see a small asteroid come by this close because we can see Earth’s gravity dramatically bend its trajectory.” He added, “Our calculations show that this asteroid got turned by 45 degrees or so as it swung by our planet.”

[Asteroid trackers and a catalog compiled by Sorma Astromical Observatory in Italy show 2020 QG's proximity with Earth. Credit: OAS - Osservatorio Astromico Sorma]

[ car-sized asteroid 2020 QG made closest Earth flyby ever recorded on Aug. 16, 2020.  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

'Near-Earth Object Observations' program

asteroid, according to Chodas, was first recorded by Zwicky Transient Facility with a wide-field camera. In a project ‘Near-Earth Object Observations Program' which is funded by National Science Foundation and NASA, Zwicky Transient Facility, a sky scanning telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County captured recent event of 2020 QG.

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(Im Credit: NASA)