2 asteroids narrowly miss Earth
Two large asteroids have narrowly avoided the earth after the objects passed within the moon and our planet’s orbit, NASA scientists said.
In a rare event, the two new celestial objects passed close to the Earth, in a distance closer than that between the Earth and the moon.
The first asteroid christened 2010 RX30, was about 20 meters in diameter and flew past at a distance of 248,000 kilometers early at 09:51a.m. on Wednesday.
The second, called 2010 RF12, was roughly two-thirds the size of its big brother and estimated to pass within just 79,000 kilometers of Earth about 12 hours later.
The first one ran at an estimated 10 kilometers a second and the latter one at 6 kilometers, NASA said.
They were only identified at the weekend by the Nasa-funded Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, during a routine sky scan.
While they were visible to many amateur stargazers, space agency researchers said neither asteroid posed a risk to earth.
Nasa estimates that asteroids smaller than 25 meters in diameter would burn up while entering the atmosphere and cause no damage.
Figures show about 50 million NEO’s (Near Earth Objects) pass by every day.
But what made this event so significant was that the two asteroids passed so close to Earth on the same day within hours of each other.
"This is the first time we've seen (two) combined within a 24-hour period but that's probably because we don't know everything that is out there," said Lindley Johnson, program executive of the Near-Earth Object program at Nasa’s headquarters in Washington.
Donald Yeomans, another manager of the program, which detects and tracks potentially hazardous asteroids and comets, said neither asteroid was visible to the naked eye.
He added that when they were nearest both asteroids were visible from moderate strength amateur telescopes.
In July, Nasa experts gave details of an asteroid measuring more than 600 yards wide, which has a one-in-a-thousand chance of colliding with Earth in 2182.
That collision promises to create more damage than that of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Preceding this, Apophis, a 25 million ton celestial body will narrowly miss our planet three times in succession.
The first near-miss is expected on the superstitious date of Friday 13th 2029.
"I think this is Mother Nature's way of firing a shot over the bow and warning Earth-based astronomers that we have a lot of work to do." Dr Yeomans added.
2개의 소행성이 지구와…
지구로부터 달까지도 안 되는 가까운 거리에서 8일 오전 소행성 하나가 지구를 스쳐갔다고 또 다른 소행성이 12시간 만에 비슷한 거리에서 지구를 스쳐지나갔다고국 항공우주국(NASA)이 밝혔다.
미국 CNN과 ABC방송 등에 따르면 2010 RX30이라 이름붙은 소행성이 이날 오전 5시51분(미 동부시각)께 지구 밖 24만8000㎞ 지점을 지나갔다.
2010 RX30의 지름은 9.8~20ｍ가량으로 관측됐다.
이어 이날 오후 5시12분께 2010 RF12라 명명된 지름 약 6~14ｍ짜리 소행성도 지구 밖 약 7만9000㎞ 지점을 지나갔다.
NASA는 자체 분석 프로그램 측정 결과 이들 소행성의 최고 속도는 2010 RX30이 초속 10㎞, 2010 RX12가 초속 6㎞ 정도로 추정된다고 설명했다.
두 소행성은 미 애리조나주(州) 투손시 인근 카탈리나 전천탐사대에서 일상적인 관측활동 도중 포착됐다.
일부 아마추어들도 관측했지만, 지구에 위협이 되지는 않았다고 NASA는 밝혔다.
NASA는 직경이 25미터가 되지 않으면 대기권 진입시 타버려 지구에 피해가 없다고 말했다.
또한 NASA측은 하루에 지구 가까운 지점을 통과하는 물체가 5000만개 가량 된다면서, 이런 일이 특별한 것은 아니라고 말했다.
그러나 이를 24시간 관측할 장비와 인력이 없어 알려지지 않을 뿐이고, 이번에 두 소행성을 한꺼번에 포착한 것은 주목할 만한 일이라고 덧붙였다.
소행성에 관한 자세한 정보는 NASA 제트추진연구소(JPL) 홈페이지(https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov)에서 확인할 수 있다.