News – GB – An asteroid traveling more than 59000 kilometers per hour ready to whistle through the Earth

An asteroid that has been nicknamed 2021 AG7 is about to make a close flight, but on, of our planet NASA tracks space rock currently traversing the solar system The space agency said the asteroid would make its closest approach to the planet on 29 January

At this stage, 2021 AG7 will be 11 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon

A lunar distance (LD) is of 384 317 kilometers, so 11 LD is equivalent to more than 42 million kilometers from Earth

NASA also revealed that the asteroid is moving through the solar system at an astronomical stage 166 kilometers per second

Generally, this would mean that the asteroid has an almost unfathomable speed of 59 760 kilometers per hour

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If the asteroid traveled from Earth to the Moon, it would take about six hours for the space rock to complete the trip

For reference, it took more than three days for the Apollo team 11 to get to the Moon in 1969

Although the space rock is at 11 LD of Earth at its closest approach, NASA has always considered it to be an object close to Earth (NEO)

NASA said on its Jet Propulsion Laboratory website (JPL): «Near-Earth objects are comets and asteroids that have been pushed by the gravitational pull of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's vicinity.

«Much of the scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due to their status as relatively unchanged remaining debris from the process of forming the solar system around 4 years ago. 6 billion years

“The giant outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) formed from an agglomeration of billions of comets and the remaining fragments of this formation process are the comets we see today.

“Likewise, les astéroïdes d’aujourd’hui sont les fragments laissés par l’agglomération initiale des planètes intérieures qui incluent Mercure, Venus, la Terre et Mars

“En tant que blocs de construction primitifs restants du processus de formation du système solaire, les comètes et les astéroïdes offrent des indices sur le mélange chimique à partir duquel les planètes ont formé environ 4Il y a 6 billion years

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“Si nous voulons connaître la composition du mélange primordial à partir duquel les planètes se sont formées, we need to determine the chemical constituents of the remaining debris from this forming process – comets and asteroids”

If the asteroid hit, what he won't do, this could cause damage similar to the Tunguska incident

In 1908, a small asteroid surprised Earth when it exploded over Tunguska in Siberia, flattening the woods on 800 miles

The explosion was so powerful it was equivalent to 30 megatons of TNT at an altitude of 62 at 93 miles (10 at 15 km)

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Asteroid, Terre, NASA