NASA first confirmed the asteroid’s presence in the solar system on January 22 and by February 6, has tracked its direction over 11 days.
The observations allowed NASA’s asteroid trackers to determine the rock’s size, speed and orbit.
NASA’s trackers determined the rock is flying towards us at speeds of about 21.26km per second or 47,557mph (76,536km/h).
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NASA has also determined the asteroid is an NEO or near-Earth object – a family of asteroids and comets that can come exceptionally close to our homeworld.
Not to change the topic here:
Asteroid fears: 'Threat to mankind' ESA chief's admission over Earth-bound space
Marc Scheper heads-up the European Space Agency’s HERA programme – a mission to test whether it would be possible to deflect a huge space rock heading for Earth.
He said in 2019: “Asteroids are quite an interesting topic as they can be a really useful opportunity, just think of the resources and utilisation that some companies are thinking about.
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“Just imagine if an asteroid collided with Earth, maybe a bigger one than we’ve had in past years.
NASA says an asteroid the size of a Boeing 747 will skim past Earth tonight - Mirror Online
The asteroid, dubbed 2020 BD9, is estimated to measure 29 - 65 metres in diameter. At the higher end of that estimate, it suggests that the asteroid could be the same size as the wingspan of a Boeing 747!
It will pass Earth at around 22:57 GMT tonight, at which point it will be around 3.8 million miles away from our planet.
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During the passing, the asteroid will be travelling at staggering speeds of 16,933mph - that's about 8.5 times faster than a bullet!
'Bizarre' turtle managed to survive asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs | Fox News
Fossils of the turtle, known as Laurasichersis relicta , were recently discovered in northern France. The fossils date to around 56 million years ago, 10 million years after the asteroid hit Earth in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The asteroid may have also acidified Earth's oceans, according to a study published in October 2019 .
At this point, it's unclear why or how L. relicta survived the impact blast, according to the study's lead author, palaeontologist Adán Pérez García. "The reason why Laurasichersis survived the great extinction, while none of the other primitive North American, European or Asian land turtles managed to do so, remains a mystery," Pérez García said in a statement .
Quite a lot has been going on:
Asteroid news: Watch as fireball EXPLODES above California at 34,672mph | Science | News |
A fireball explosion above California led to the International Meteor Organisation (IMO) receiving more than 100 reports from mesmerised Californians as a bright blast lit up the night’s sky on January 30. Initially, the IMO believed the explosion was caused by a piece of space debris from a defunct satellite re-entering the atmosphere.
A video from the American Meteor Society (AMS) shows the meteoroid falling into Earth, producing a steady stream of small blasts.
Asteroid warning: Russian space agency reveals chances of major asteroid hitting Earth | Science
The likes of NASA have made great strides in discovering near-Earth objects that are over one kilometre (0.6 miles) in size, with 90 percent now accounted for. However, that means there are still 10 percent of dangerous asteroids that have not been spotted.
Now the first deputy director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yury Urlichich, has revealed the chances of a major asteroid hitting Earth.
Mr Urlich said: “There is a less than one percent chance that something can approach the Earth.”
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