You’ve probably read this week about a “planet the size of the world’s tallest building hurt 56, m. M meters per hour.” Some news sites “confirm NASA.” Add. Most of these things are technically correct, but the most important point remains.
Asteroid 153201 (2000 W107) will miss Earth by about 2.7 million miles on Sunday. Observations of the planet put its size somewhere between the four football fields. That huge size comes from the difficulty of determining the size of relatively small objects so far.
What makes me itch is why this particular North Earth Project (NEO) is getting so much attention. The trio of NEOs that will return to Earth on Thanksgiving Day is even more exciting. This includes planetary 2018 RK Q4, which will be 10 times closer than Sunday.
Protect the planet
In 2005, Congress set a goal for NASA to find about 90% of the closest planets to Earth that are 460 feet (140 meters) or larger in size. The space agency responded to that call NASA Center for Near-Earth Object StudiesWhich tracks this and other NEOs.
The next time you see a claim for a planetary ship going to Earth, you can see the data for yourself. Centre’s latest information on upcoming approaches.
The data there show close proximity (CA) approximately 19 sandal distances (LDs) over the next 60 days. Any SEO with more than one number in the “CA Distance Minimum LD” column has no chance of hitting the moon, much less the Earth.
