Published 18:19 IST, September 11th 2020
5 asteroids are heading towards Earth; NASA reveals how closely they will pass us
5 Asteroids are approaching closer to Earth. 3 will pass Earth today i.e. September 11, and others in the next two days. How close are they? Read more.
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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory under NASA has revealed three dates when the Earth will experience five close approaches from 5 objects that are going to pass through Earth. These approaches are much closer than we have ever expected. NASA uses its Asteroid Watch Widget to track this upcoming near approach and determines the distance.
The next 5 approaches are within the 4.6 million miles distance
Image ~ Shutterstock
According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology, 5 objects are going to pass through Earth within the 4.6 million miles distance. The average distance between Earth and the moon is about 239,000 miles i.e. 385,000 kilometres. In the image below, one can see the date of closest approach, the approximate size of the objects and the distance of their path from Earth.
Image ~ JPL Asteroid Watch Widget
On September 11, three objects are known as 2020 RT1, 2020 RM and 2020 RA1 will pass through us at the distance of 4,400,000 miles, 651,000 miles and 2,070,000 miles respectively. The size of these Sept 11 objects are determined to be approximately 140 ft, 44 ft and 92 ft respectively.
The object approaching on September 12 is known as 2012 RM15 which is of the approximate size of 140 ft and it will be passing at the distance of 3,550,000 miles. The other near approach is going to happen on September 13 and the object's name is 2020 RB1. It is of an approximate size of 50 ft and it will continue its path at a distance of 2,790,000 miles.
What is the Asteroid Watch Widget?
Image ~ Shutterstock
According to the official site of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Asteroid Watch Widget is a machine that tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth. The Widget used to display the approaches and showcases the date of closest approach, approximate object diameter, relative size and distance from Earth for each encounter.
In the above image, one can see the Widget displaying "the next five Earth approaches to within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometres or 19.5 times the distance to the moon); an object larger than about 150 meters that can approach the Earth to within this distance is termed a potentially hazardous object," according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory official site.
18:19 IST, September 11th 2020