A newly discovered asteroid about the size of a house will zip safely by Earth on Wednesday (April 15), passing just inside the orbit of the moon.
The asteroid 2020 GH2 will pass Earth at a range of about 223,000 miles (359,000 kilometers). The average distance from the Earth to the moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 km).
According to NASA's Asteroid Watch program, asteroid 2020 GH2 is about between 43 and 70 feet (13-70 meters) wide, or about the size of a detached house. It was first discovered on Saturday (April 11) and is being tracked by astronomers at several observatories, including the Catalina Sky Survey at Mount Lemmon in Arizona, according to the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This may worth something:
Rehearsal Time for NASA's Asteroid Sampling Spacecraft | NASA
Seek out 1998 OR2, the brightest predicted near-Earth asteroid encounter of 2020 –
If you’re feeling a bit disappointed with the breakup of Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) , console yourself by searching for a large near-Earth asteroid with the catchy official name of 52768 (1998 OR 2 ) that is already visible with instruments as small as 15-cm (6-inch) aperture and will brighten to eleventh-magnitude by the end of April.
Discovered on 24 July 1998 by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program at Haleakalā Observatory on the Hawaiian island of Maui, 1998 OR 2 has a diameter of 2 to 4 kilometres and rotates once on its axis every 4.1 hours. The asteroid has a 1345-day (3⅔-year) orbit that brings it to within 1.0179 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun at perihelion, out to 3.7509 AU at aphelion.
NASA will practice grabbing asteroid sample in space next week - SlashGear
Quite a lot has been going on:
NASA’s asteroid probe is rehearsing for its most dangerous move yet – BGR
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe has been hanging out around the massive space rock known as Bennu since late 2018. Since it arrived, it’s spent a lot of time examining the asteroid and sending back gorgeous images of its surface. Its observations of the asteroid have helped NASA plan for what will ultimately be the most important objective of the entire mission: Obtaining a sample of asteroid material and then returning it to Earth.
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Now, with the planned date of its first-ever sample-gathering attempt fast approaching, the OSIRIS-REx team is preparing to send the probe on a dry run. It’s a rehearsal of sorts to ensure that the probe follows all the commands and does so safely. It’s also one of the most dangerous things the spacecraft will have done since arriving at Bennu.
NASA: 'Potentially Hazardous Asteroid' Approaching Earth On Tuesday
NASA is currently tracking a massive "potentially hazardous asteroid" that's expected to approach Earth on Tuesday (April 14). According to the data collected by NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the approaching asteroid is big enough to cause a major impact event on Earth if it collides with the planet. Thankfully, it will not come in close contact with Earth.
The incoming asteroid has been identified as 2020 FZ6 . As indicated in CNEOS' database, this asteroid has an estimated diameter of 620 feet, making it twice as big as the Big Ben clock tower in London, England.
NASA Is About to Grab an Asteroid Sample and Bring it Home | Space | Air & Space
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A typical spacecraft, when it arrives someplace in our solar system, comes in hot. Screaming through the void at thousands of miles per hour, an orbiter or lander begins slowing down after rocket thrusters fire, parachutes and sky-cranes unfurl, and landing legs and airbags deploy. Despite meticulous planning, there is little elegance in all of this. A robotic explorer is rarely designed to hit an exact target: The best-planned missions aim for somewhere in an area the size of a small city.
Asteroid discovery: 'Oumuamua was part of larger body which was RIPPED apart by star |
Most asteroids are potato or planet shaped, but 'Oumuamua is long, 400 metres from tip to tip, and thin.
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This would mean that 'Oumuamua was once part of a larger body which had been torn apart by a star elsewhere in the Milky Way.
It would explain its shape and also how it is moving away from the Sun's gravity so quickly, according to researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Happening on Twitter
Newfound asteroid the size of a house will fly safely by Earth on Wednesday https://t.co/vcBBqlToKS https://t.co/b59ozM2nU5 SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Tue Apr 14 21:13:35 +0000 2020
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