There will be no “Armageddon” situation on earth after an asteroid as big as the car just missed Monday.
Apophis, a massive ‘god of chaos’ asteroid, has not yet condemned the earth.
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The asteroid, known as 2021 GW4, traveled 18,700 miles per hour as it passed the planet. The asteroid was at its nearest just over 12,000 miles from Earth at 9:01 a.m. ET. For reference, most geostationary satellites are about 22,000 miles away and the moon is about 238,900 miles away.
The asteroid was first spotted on April 8 at the Catalina Sky Survey in Mt. Lemmon, Arizona.
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Gianluca Masi, astronomer and founder of the Virtual Telescope Project, said it was “an extraordinary close encounter.” He captured an image of the asteroid when it was more than 186,000 miles from Earth and can be seen in the center of the image with an arrow pointing at it.
“We repeat that this is an absolutely safe approach. Asteroids of this size that come so close are relatively rare, but so far this year we have had four objects that come within 0.07 lunar distance of the Earth’s center: By 2021, GW4 will be the largest of these four rocks, ‘Masi said.
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NASA estimated that the asteroid was between 3.5-7.7 meters long and tracked how close it came to Earth. The size is the reason why people could not see it without a telescope.
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Earth recently evaded some space bullets after NASA announced that the 1100-foot asteroid Apophis would not hit Earth in the next 100 years. The asteroid is expected to come within 20,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029.
According to NASA, it is common for space rocks similar to 2021 GW4 to hit Earth, as this happens about once a year. However, space rocks smaller than 25 meters, more than three times the size of 2021 GW4, often burn up and create an impressive fireball as they enter the earth’s atmosphere.
NASA estimates that it will take an asteroid longer than half a mile to have global effects after the impact.
This NASA photo shows members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars robber crew watching in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched Mars on February 18, 2021 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. An important goal for Perseverance Mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The wanderer will characterize the geology and climate of the planets, pave the way for the exploration of the Red Planet by man, and be the first mission to collect and collect the Mars rock.
In this illustration made available by NASA, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover studies a Mars rock block. The Perseverance Mars rover will land on February 18, 2021. An important goal for Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the geology and climate of the planet, and it will pave the way for the exploration of the Red Planet by man, and will be the first mission to collect Mars rock and regolith and place it in the closet.
This illustration provided by NASA shows how the spacecraft containing the Perseverance rover will slow down using the drag generated by the Martian atmosphere.
A jar with an earth sticker and one marble inside and a pot with a Mars sticker full of marbles will be placed on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at a conference room table of the Mission Support Area (MSA) in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA seen in Pasadena. , California. The Perseverance Mars robber team moves one marble a day since launching pitcher to pitcher.
An Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance hoisted off Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, July 30, 2020, with NASA’s Perseverance Rover destined for Mars.
NASA engineers look at the first driving test for the Mars 2020 rover, later called ‘Perseverance’, in a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in December 2019.
This illustration provided by NASA depicts how the Ingenuity helicopter is expected to take off on Mars after the Perseverance rover landed. This will be the first aircraft to attempt a controlled flight on another planet.
A full-scale model of the experimental Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which will be transported under the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, will be unveiled on February 16, 2021 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
A giant projection of the NASA Mars 2020 mission Perseverance Rover on Mount Tschuggen (left) and Mars planet on Mount Jungfrau (right), by Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter, will be photographed from February 15 from the Alps resort Mannlichen, Switzerland. , 2021. Several projections were made from the ground and helicopter and were carried out over distances of up to 8 km and dimensions up to 2.2 km in height on the iconic Swiss mountains Eiger, Monch und Jungfrau. The artistic performance pays homage to NASA’s “Mars 2020” Perseverance Rover Mars mission scheduled to land on February 18, 2021.
This NASA photo shows the members of NASA’s Perseverance team reacting in mission control after receiving confirmation that the spacecraft successfully landed on Mars on February 18, 2021 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA said on February 18, 2021, that the Perseverance Rover had touched the surface of Mars after successfully overcoming a risky landing phase known as the ‘seven minutes of terror’. “Touchdown confirmed,” said Chief Operating Officer Swati Mohan at about 3:55 p.m. Eastern Time when mission control cheered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory headquarters.
David Buecher, program manager, celebrates this as he watches the successful landing on Mars of NASA’s Perseverance Rover that will air on February 18, 2021 on the Waterton campus of Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colo. Buecher designed the heat shield separation equipment for the Mars 2020 mission and is the program manager for the Mars helicopter deployment system.
